Sebastian Sinclair

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 (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/eth" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ETH</a>), cardano (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/ada" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ADA</a>), polkadot (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/dot" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DOT</a>) and tezos (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/xtz" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">XTZ</a>), 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.&nbsp;



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 (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/ltc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LTC</a>) 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 <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-02/revolut-crypto-revenue-plunges-yet-ceo-storonsky-still-believes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> 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 <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-ceo-touts-subscriptions-to-curb-reliance-on-trading-fees" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Brian Armstrong</a> 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, <a href="https://my.pitchbook.com/profile/104383-72/company/profile#insights" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pitchbook</a> data shows.



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Revolut Doubles Down on Crypto With Staking Rewards — But Not in US

Jack Kubinec

As tech executives are forced to account for <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/big-tech-trading-like-bitcoin-on-a-bad-day-after-disappointing-earnings/">tumbling revenues</a> to investors, a new scapegoat has emerged: crypto.



Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/google-summer-ad-business-falls-after-crypto-winter/">blamed</a> the company’s growth slowdown in part on a drawdown in ad spending by crypto companies during a third quarter earnings call.&nbsp;



Semiconductor company AMD similarly <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/1/23435504/amd-q3-2022-earnings-profits-revenue-pc-sales">pegged</a> its own revenue disappointment, among other things, on falling demand for graphics processing units (GPUs) that can be used to mine crypto. Revolut, the upstart finance app, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-02/revolut-crypto-revenue-plunges-yet-ceo-storonsky-still-believes">said</a> crypto revenue fell from 30-35% to 5% of the company’s total since 2021.



Crypto has reached a milestone in its institutional adoption journey that most in the space would be happy to detour around.



“This is the first real quarter where you&#8217;re hearing these companies actively bringing up crypto as a reason for missed revenues,” Griffin McShane, head of insights and communication at MPCH Labs, said.



But crypto companies had to become intertwined with other tech companies for this revenue shortfall to happen in the first place.



In 2018’s crypto winter, Google was <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/04/alphabet-earnings-q4-2018.html">exceeding</a> earnings expectations, regardless of whether crypto companies were purchasing ads. But as venture capital and talented young coders created excitement around the potential of blockchain, the rest of the tech economy had no choice but to shift toward crypto. In 2022, crypto and tech prices <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-is-more-correlated-with-tech-stocks-than-ever-how-do-we-decouple/">tend to move in tandem</a>.&nbsp;



“If you&#8217;re running a profit-focused [tech] operation, you have to be supportive of blockchain and digital assets, because that seems to be where we are going,” David Tawil, CEO of ProChain Capital, said.



Crypto’s move to the mainstream has been fragmented and beset by unimpressive trading returns in 2022. Bitcoin mining, the original crypto-tech integration, was <a href="https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-mining_profitability.html#1y">80% less profitable Monday</a> compared to a year ago.&nbsp;



But tech companies do seem to be headed in crypto’s direction, despite the revenue headaches. <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/meta-pins-web3-hopes-on-instagram-creators-minting-nfts/">Meta</a> and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/reddit-makes-pfp-nfts-cool-again-marketplace-trading-volume-surges/">Reddit</a> are integrating NFTs on their platforms. Google Cloud is <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/google-signals-major-crypto-push-with-ethereum-solana-support/">launching new partnerships</a> with the Ethereum and Solana communities.



Companies further from Web3 development are likely less affected by crypto’s rising and falling. Caterpillar, for example, hasn’t shown much desire to move its manufacturing to the blockchain, and metaverse real estate doesn’t need heavy equipment to build.



But in the tech sector, a world where every company sees itself partly as a crypto company may not be so far off.



“In many ways, I think we&#8217;re already there,” McShane said.



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Is Crypto to Blame for Tech Companies’ Woes?

Bessie Liu

<div id="highlights-block_63086f79f641d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Elrond CEO Beniamin Mincu said many new updates are expected in the coming months</li>
 <li>EGLD price has dropped by 77% since its all-time high in November 2021</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



British fintech and banking firm Revolut is partnering with Elrond to bring the blockchain’s native cryptocurrency, EGLD, onto its platform.



Elrond’s EGLD will be available to over 20 million Revolut users in over 30 countries, an opportunity that Elrond CEO Beniamin Mincu dubbed “tremendous.”



The move marks a bet on the underlying technology of the blockchain, considering its token plummeted some 90% from its all-time high in Nov. 2021. Its total value locked (TVL) has been decimated in that time as well and now sits at $157 million, <a href="https://defillama.com/chain/Elrond" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to DefiLlama</a>.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="300" height="300" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-08-25-Beniamin-Mincu.png" alt="" class="wp-image-29269" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-08-25-Beniamin-Mincu.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-08-25-Beniamin-Mincu.png?w=150 150w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-08-25-Beniamin-Mincu.png?w=257 257w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-08-25-Beniamin-Mincu.png?w=261 261w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-08-25-Beniamin-Mincu.png?w=219 219w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-08-25-Beniamin-Mincu.png?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-08-25-Beniamin-Mincu.png?w=50 50w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption>Beniamin Mincu; Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/beniaminmincu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter</a></figcaption></figure></div>


“It’s a huge step forward in making EGLD available to a large audience of people,” Mincu told Blockworks. “The listing is one thing, but there are other things such as staking and some other features as well.”



Elrond launched its mainnet in July 2020, using its own unique Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm called Secure Proof of Stake (SPoS) to support its blockchain.&nbsp;



“We believe the Elrond network enables us to scale dynamically with the demand of the network&nbsp;



in a way that no other network can do at this point,” Mincu said.



The network’s decentralized exchange and digital wallet Maiar was taken offline in June 2022 after “<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/elrond-native-token-drops-7-as-maiar-dex-goes-dark/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">suspicious activity</a>.” This incident caused the wallet’s token MEX to drop in value by over 90%.&nbsp;



EGLD suffered as well, slipping to as low as $38 shortly after the incident. Its price remains down from its all-time high in Nov. 23 2021 high of around $540, trading hands at roughly $56.20 at the time of writing.



Although there have yet to be any significant ecosystem updates on the network, Mincu said there will be a lot to look forward to in the coming months. Most specifically, in November — when the first Elrond conference will be held in Paris.



“We’ve been working on several things, and with this conference, people will get the sense of where this entire space is really going towards, and what we’ve been working on in silence for some time now,” Mincu said.&nbsp;



Mincu said that moving forward, he sees Elrond becoming the “next fundamental layer for the metaverse.”



“I believe that the metaverse landscape will be absolutely defining for the next decades,” he said. “But without the blockchain, the metaverse really cannot exist&nbsp; — so this is the direction that we&#8217;re pushing very heavily towards.”



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Revolut Expands Crypto Offerings, Adding Elrond

<div id="highlights-block_62f1e689b714d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Revolut plans to move on from its current crypto provider in early September, when the company will offer &#8220;wider and better access&#8221; to crypto</li>
 <li>The company is vying to add an additional 25 tokens to its platform in addition to its existing seven offers for US customers</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The US arm of digital banking platform Revolut is switching its main cryptocurrency service provider, according to two sources familiar with the matter. 



Revolut is tapping Chicago-based Apex Crypto, the sources said, moving away from Paxos. An email circulated to customers on Tuesday and confirmed by Blockworks said Revolut intends to migrate from New York State Department of Financial Services-licensed crypto firm Paxos in early September. 



Revolut later sent out an email to customers confirming the custodial change, saying assets will be transferred on-chain. Interruptions to crypto trading are expected to last a few hours on the day, per the email.



It ends a more than two-year partnership with Paxos, which paved the way for the app to offer crypto to US-based customers, initially debuting with bitcoin and ether. New York-headquartered Paxos is a financial institution and tech firm that includes crypto brokerage, asset tokenization and settlement services.



Revolut, a financial super app servicing 20 million customers across 36 countries, launched in the US in <a href="https://twitter.com/RevolutApp/status/1242413400308801536?s=20&amp;t=N433Q2SYEqyIaC3jQ25bBA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">March 2020</a>.



&#8220;We’re excited to be partnering with Apex Crypto LLC to provide wider and better access to crypto for you and the Revolut community,&#8221; Revolut wrote in the email.



Representatives for all three companies declined to comment. 



The company is eyeing adding an additional 25 or more tokens to its platform following the migration to Apex, adding to its existing seven offerings in the US. Apex is a broker-dealer offering execution, settlement and custody as a service via its turnkey solutions platform.



Revolut also said it would eventually enable crypto withdrawals, deposits and staking &#8220;in the near future.&#8221; Users are currently able to buy, hold, sell and transfer crypto peer-to-peer through the app.



Crypto peer-to-peer transfers will be temporarily halted during and after the migration until further notice, the neobank said.



&#8220;This was a tough decision, but one we had to make as a preemptive measure to ensure that the process is completed successfully, Revolut said of peer-to-peer transfers in its email. &#8220;We&#8217;re working hard to enable this feature again in the near future.&#8221;



Purchases of Polygon (MATIC) for New York State residents will be temporarily disabled following the migration to comply with local regulations. 



Users will be allowed to opt out of the migration process by closing their positions and liquidating their assets at current prevailing market rates by authorizing Paxos to do so.



During the migration, customers will be unable to buy or sell their digital assets while the crypto section of the app will be hidden. Account balances will remain unaffected, according to the email.



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