- Cyprus' financial watchdog issued the MiCA licence.
- It is part of its broader crypto push.
- It faces fierce competition from fintechs and crypto-native firms.
Revolut is set to roll out its crypto services across the EU after securing a licence under the trading bloc’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation.
On Wednesday, the UK challenger bank announced it had obtained its MiCA licence from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission.
“It’s no secret that we have ambitious plans for the crypto sector in the future, and our MiCA license is fundamental to all of that,” Costas Michael, CEO of Revolut Digital Assets Europe, said in a statement shared with DL News.
The licence lets companies offering crypto services, such as Revolut, to market them across 30 countries in the European Economic Area.
Crypto profits
It marks the $75 billion fintech firm’s latest foray into the crypto industry.
Having begun to let users buy and sell digital assets in 2017, the neobank has made crypto a linchpin of its business.
The top line at Revolut’s so-called wealth business, which includes crypto products and trading activity, jumped 298%, to $674 million, thanks to surging crypto activity in 2024.
“Crypto is a big part of our belief in banking without borders, and securing our MiCA licence is a critical milestone,” Emil Urmanshin, director of crypto at Revolut, shared with DL News.
Revolut faces fierce competition.
A wave of traditional financial institutions and fintech firms is increasingly expanding their crypto offerings.
Companies like payment giant PayPal, trading app Robinhood, fintech powerhouse Stripe, and investment behemoth BlackRock are among the organisations that have tapped into the sector.
At the same time, they face pressure from crypto-native companies launching services that financial firms would traditionally provide.
Crypto hits back
Crypto exchanges such as Coinbase and Kraken have, for instance, launched several business lines that would traditionally be found amongst fintechs.
Coinbase launched a debit card in collaboration with Visa in 2020, and has announced plans to become an “everything exchange,” as CEO Brian Armstrong called it in July.
Kraken, for its part, has expanded its services to include custody and prime brokerage services as well as a blockchain-powered neobanking alternative called Krak.
“That is going to be something that we’re building out in the UK and Europe over the course of the next six to 12 months,” Bivu Das, UK general manager at Kraken, told DL News on the sidelines of the Zebu Live conference in London this week.
Revolut’s MiCA licence also precedes the upcoming launch of “Crypto 2.0.”
The company said the newer offering will expand the number of cryptocurrencies available to users to more than 280, zero-fee staking services, and stablecoin conversions to the dollar with no spreads.
Eric Johansson is DL News managing editor. Got a tip? Email at eric@dlnews.com.
