Revolut to Expand Crypto Offering With Stablecoin Venture

Financial technology giant Revolut has become the latest traditional bank to venture into stablecoin issuance.

Revolut is nurturing plans to expand its cryptocurrency offering by exploring stablecoins, four people familiar with the development informed Coindesk. The fintech giant becomes the latest in its line of business to venture into stablecoin issuance after Ripple, BitGo, and PayPal.

Notably, the persons familiar with the plan noted that the stablecoin venture is still in its infant stages. They said it would take a while for the enterprise to come to fruition.

Revolut Wary of Regulators

A hurdle Revolut would cross before the launch would be regulatory approval. The persons familiar with the issue noted that the neobank is taking its time before leaping into the sector to ensure full regulatory compliance.

Revolut intends to ensure that its venture is compliant with guidelines governing the sector before launch. This is to avert future clampdowns from regulators and ensure that its stablecoin is a safe haven for investors.

Speaking in an email, a Revolut spokesperson stated that offering crypto services was at the core of the firm’s effort to enhance the banking system. The representative indicated that Revolut aims to become the “safest and most accessible” provider of crypto-related services.

Notably, Revolut’s venture came more than a year after PayPal launched its PYUSD stablecoin. The PayPalUSD is issued by Paxos and is capped at $732 million.

The stablecoin market is largely dominated by Tether’s USDT, which is capped at $119 billion. The issuer controls almost 70% of the entire stablecoin cap, with Circle’s USDC holding 20% of the remaining market size.

Revolut’s Crypto Ventures

The UK-based payment giant has increasingly shown susceptibility to the cryptocurrency industry. In May, the leading fintech announced the launch of Revolut X, a crypto trading platform for over 100 assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP.

The trading platform charged users a zero maker fee and a 0.09% taker fee, which is a very competitive transaction fee among its rivalries. Notably, Revolut has a valuation of $45 billion.

In August, Ledger integrated Revolut into Ledger Live, allowing users to buy cryptocurrency through Revolut’s on-ramp service, Revolut Ramp. The partnership added Revolut as a buy provider for Ledger users in 27 European Economic Area (EEA) countries.