Revolut app announces Bitcoin withdrawals… within limits

Europe’s leading financial app Revolut has finally enabled Bitcoin withdrawals four years after it first provided crypto trading services to some users, and a year after it extended trading to all 7 million users worldwide.

Revolut first added Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum trading for premium users back in 2017, however they have only been able to withdraw it as fiat until now.

The financial tech firm announced today the beta launch of Bitcoin withdrawals with exclusive access first given to its U.K.-based top-tier Metal customers. Revolut also plans to roll out withdrawals worldwide — it has users in the U.S., Australia and elsewhere — and to other client tier-bases in the future.

The move follows a similar pathway to Paypal which launched U.S. crypto trading in late 2020, with many noting at time that coins bought on the platform would not be able leave.

To begin with, Revolut users will be able to add three external addresses and withdraw between 500 to 1,000 pounds a month, with Revolut also introducing two-factor authentication to ease security concerns.

Nik Storonsky, Founder and CEO at Revolut, noted that users had demanded withdrawals:

“Crypto withdrawals have been a heavily requested feature within Revolut’s crypto community and we’re delighted that we can begin the gradual process of rolling it out. Customers can lock down wherever they feel safest — whether it’s Revolut, into hot or cold storage, or to another exchange.”

“This is just the start of a long list of new crypto features we plan to launch so we can offer customers one of the best crypto products on the market,” he added.

Revolut is a London based firm that offers its clients’ bank accounts, debit cards, currency exchange, commission-free stock trading, crypto exchange, and foreign exchange services. The app supports customers across Europe, Canada, Singapore, Japan, the United States, and Australia.

In response to the global pandemic, the digital banking app rolled out crypto services for all standard users in April 2020.

Despite Revolut’s interest in cryptocurrency, Kraken expressed difficulties in working with the firm in September 2020, listing Revolut as one of the cloud banking services that did not process deposits or withdrawals from the U.S. exchange.