Revolut is currently “assessing the best time” to launch its native cryptocurrency this year.
A spokesperson for the challenger bank told Decrypt via email that it is currently “scoping the market conditions and assessing the best time to launch RevCoin in the coming months."
Revolut is one of Europe's most valuable fintech firms, claiming over 25 million users worldwide, and was valued at $33 billion in its latest funding round in July 2021.
Anonymous sources speaking to CoinDesk in a September 2021 interview claimed Revolut is working on something “something like an exchange token,” but that this would not be a stablecoin.
A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency that is pegged to a fiat currency, like the dollar or the pound.
The sources compared the potential future offering to card issuer Wirex’s WXT token, which allows consumers to receive 2% cashback on their credit card purchases in the form of a proprietary cryptocurrency.
Revolut's crypto ambitions
The challenger bank launched its crypto offering back in December 2017, letting users buy, sell, and trade 25 of the most popular cryptocurrencies, well before other consumer-facing banks.
Revolut has progressively continued to add to its crypto offering over the past years, adding 11 new tokens in April 2021 including Cardano and Filecoin, and then Dogecoin in June 2021.
It would appear that the firm is pushing forward with its pro-crypto strategy; the firm received long-term authorization to begin offering regulated crypto services in the UK in August 2022 from the country’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
But with a recently volatile bear market in the crypto space, beginning in June 2022 during the start of crypto winter, and intensifying during the FTX collapse in November, you could see why Revolut may be waiting to assess its options.