Revolut, a UK based banking platform that boasts 25 million customers globally has introduced a staking feature for crypto this week. The new capability is available to UK and European Economic Area (EEA) customers.

In September 2022, Revolut received approval from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to provide crypto services to UK customers. Only a handful of companies have received this approval.

Crypto staking is a process where an individual holds or locks up their digital assets for a period, typically days or months, and in return they receive a reward, i.e., the yield.

Which Crypto’s Can Be Staked?

Polkadot’s DOT, Tezos’s XTZ, Cardano’s ADA and Ethereum ETH are initially supported. Yields are not guaranteed but are expected to range from 2.99% to 11.65%.

It is worth noting that DOT is locked for 29 days after unstaking and you won’t be able to sell your balance, even if it loses value. This maybe explains why DOT has a high yield of 11.65% APY. Crypto prices move a lot within a month and if there is downside you could see how your initially investment could actually be worth less than you invested.

Any staked ETH will be locked until the Ethereum upgrade is complete, likely to be the first half of 2023. This also means that you won’t be able to sell your staked ETH during this period.

Crypto Terms and Conditions

In light of many of the scandals and bankruptcy cases that have been encountered within the crypto industry over the past year or so, it is definitely worth fully understanding Revolut’s Terms and Conditions in relation to crypto

These can be found here.

We have highlighted some of the points that we believe are worth attention.

“When you buy cryptocurrency through the Revolut app, it will not be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) or the Lithuanian Deposit Insurance Scheme and if you have a complaint it is not likely to fall within the scope of the jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).”

“You will own the rights to the financial value of any cryptocurrency we buy for you. We will hold your cryptocurrencies on your behalf and you will have a right (called a ‘beneficial right’) to them. This means you can tell us when to sell or transfer it (within the limits of these terms and conditions). You have complete control of your cryptocurrencies, and we will only act upon instructions you give us. You will not be able to carry out transactions yourself.”

Several reasons why Revolut could refuse to follow your instructions for buy, sell or unstaking requests include:

• there is not enough crypto available in your wallet;

• one of our partners is not available (for example, one of them could be experiencing a service disruption);

• we have good reason to suspect that your instruction was for illegal purposes (for example, to commit fraud); or

• we have good reason to believe that your instruction could badly affect our reputation or goodwill.

About Revolut

Revolut was founded in 2015 and has experienced rapid growth since inception with its last funding (Series E) raising $800m.

Revolut has a mobile and web app and provides various financial services to personal and business customers. These services include payments, currency exchange, international transfers, crypto and stocks.

Revolut’s current metrics include:

• 25+ million personal users

• 500k+ business users

• 200+ supported regions and countries

• 29 in-app currencies

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