Today, Revolut launched a new metal debit card available to premium customers that allows them to withdraw up to 1% cashback in either fiat or cryptocurrency on transactions outside Europe, or 0.1% of any transaction within Europe.
Revolut is a prepaid debit card service based in the UK that enables customers to receive, send, and withdraw money in different currencies at the real exchange rate and is often used by people traveling or working with international clients., offering UK customers a personal bank account number (IBAN). The company supports five cryptocurrencies; bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, and bitcoin Cash. The company also allows the in-app exchange of 25 fiat currencies and enables travelers to spend a total of 150 fiat currencies abroad without fees.
Customers can purchase cryptocurrency at a 1.5% markup on exchange prices through the card, although the service does not allow customer access to private keys and does not currently support the external transfer of cryptocurrencies to wallets outside the platform. However, users can send cryptocurrency to each other in-app or transfer it to fiat and withdraw it from an ATM or spend the funds in stores, and cryptocurrency funds are largely held in offline cold-storage vaults.
With 2.5 million customers in Europe, the crypto-cashback service could be a significant breakthrough in adoption. CEO and Founder Nik Storonsky said:
“The launch of Revolut Metal is also an important step towards the company generating additional revenue, especially as we prepare to launch a commission-free trading platform and expand the business into North America and Asia later this year.”
Darren Deal, Vice President of Prepaid Cards at Mastercard Ireland and UK, confirmed a partnership with Revolut on the new card stating that it was a compelling offer to all regular overseas travelers.
Cryptocurrency debit card adoption hit a major setback in January when Visa its partnership with Wave Crest, the payment processing company supporting the development of crypto debit cards like TenX and CryptoPay leading to the sudden closure of six card services.
While debit card progress has slowed down following the termination of the Wave Crest partnership, other companies like MinexSystems and Beldex have since released functional crypto debit cards, and the new cashback scheme is another step in the right direction. Revolut users can now cash out in any of Revolut’s 25 supported fiat currencies or 5 cryptocurrencies, taking the money from their Revolut crypto holdings.
While currently only available within Europe, the company is planning to launch in US, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand within the next few months.
Featured image from Revolut.
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Published at Wed, 22 Aug 2018 17:08:15 +0000
Banking
