Revolut Doubles Down on Crypto With Staking Rewards — But Not in US
Long-time crypto fan Revolut is now offering staking yield on four tokens across the UK and select European countries
Shutterstock.com/Victor Maschek, modified by Blockworks
British neobank Revolut is pushing ahead with its crypto offerings by giving its customers across the UK and Europe the ability to earn staking rewards.
Customers in supported countries can now earn up to 11.65% annual percentage yield (APY), paid in the respective tokens, on four cryptocurrencies: ether (ETH), cardano (ADA), polkadot (DOT) and tezos (XTZ), Revolut said in a statement Tuesday.
Revolut is currently offering the most yield on DOT. Staking the token directly to the network as a Polkadot validator generates around 14.43% APY, which means staking DOT via Revolut leaves nearly 3% yield on the table.
Funds are to be held with “trusted custodians” while the platform will manage a user’s private keys. Blockworks has reached out to Revolut to learn more.
Revolut’s staking rewards rollout comes as the platform takes another shot at tapping potential growth from the digital asset sector. The fintech unicorn first dabbled in crypto by allowing users to acquire BTC, ETH and litecoin (LTC) back in 2017.
Revolut has since expanded its list of supported digital assets significantly, now advertising more than 90 tokens. It also enabled bitcoin withdrawals to personal wallets in 2021.
Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky said in November that while crypto had contributed 30% to 35% of the firm’s total revenue in 2021, that figure had fallen to around 5% last year.
Still, Revolut’s push for diversifying its digital asset revenue streams echoes sentiment shared by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong last August.
At the time, Armstrong said his company would shift the way it drums up dollars, which has mostly hinged on fees taken from trading activity when times are good.
Revolut offers a number of products and services including banking, brokerage for traditional equities and digital assets. The firm says it serves 25 million customers across 200 countries, leveraging 29 in-app fiat currencies.
Revolut has raised a total of $1.8 billion in funding over 19 rounds and is valued at roughly $33 billion, Pitchbook data shows.
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