By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
After a few years of operation, Revolut extended its services to residents in Australia in June 2020. Today, the company has announced that Australians can trade in cryptocurrency on the platform.
Revolut app has since its inception in 2015 maintained a strict stance on its features available to residents of countries outside Europe. After a few years of operation, Revolut extended its services to residents in Australia in June 2020. The FinTech company is famously known for its foreign exchange services having offered real exchange rates to residents within its jurisdiction. Today, it has been announced that Australians can trade in cryptocurrencies on its platform.
The Inside Story of Revolut in Australia
Following the announcement that Revolut has launched its app in Australia, it was made clear that they would initially add 20,000 people on its waiting list to the platform then expand the user-base gradually. However, the added Aussies had limited access to the features on the platform as they were not authorized to navigate to the newly added cryptocurrency trading and business account features as stated by Will Mahon- Heap, the company’s expansion manager for the Asia Pacific-Region. This was due to what they termed a “measured approach”.
Today, that problem has been removed, giving Australian users the free-will to buy, sell, or hold any cryptocurrency of their choice offered on the platform. In addition, Australian users can directly convert their Fiat to all the notable digital assets including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, and XRP.
This comes as good news to cryptocurrency traders in Australia especially those having accounts with Revolut. This digital banking alternative seeks to offset the known challenges of money transactions between the UK, Europe, and Australia by replacing the high cost and the time-consuming nature of transactions with instant and low transaction fees for its users. Revolut has ensured that its “metal plan” customers can round up credit card payment to the nearest dollar to purchase cryptocurrency with the excess. In addition, customers can transfer cryptocurrency to other Revolut users.
This financial company has successfully penetrated the European market with about 1 million cryptocurrency users on its exchange with over 6000 cryptocurrency accounts added daily according to research. It has an interesting obsession among the Australians as it had about 30,000 people on its waitlist. Not just that, about 25,000 Australians use the beta version of the app. According to Matt Baxby, the CEO of Revolut Australia, many Australians have a hard time accessing cryptocurrency as an investment option as buying and selling the digital assets can be complicated to the uninitiated.
Revolut has been said to possess e-money license permitted under the regulatory regime of Australia according to CNBC. They have managed a partnership with an Australian domestic bank helping them to establish in the local market. Revolut applied for a European banking license last year joining the likes of Starling to mount more pressure on the traditional banks.