Revolut allowed users to buy bitcoins – but there is a catch

The British FINTECH startup Revolut with Russian roots has opened up to the owners of standard accounts access to the purchase of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin and XRP. However, users soon noticed that working with digital assets is limited.

As one of the readers told BlockchainJournal, no operations except for buying, exchanging Fiat for cryptocurrency and sending it to another Revolut user are not available.

“It is also impossible to send a crypt to other cryptographs. Fiat exchanges are made through the exchanges of their companions, and for this in Revolut they take 1.5%, " he wrote

But the main concern of the reader was the fact that private keys for access to cryptocurrency are stored in a kind of “purse owned by the site.”

Revolut's public relations manager, Kieran Wiley, in a BlockchainJournal comment confirmed that the platform currently does not support the transfer of cryptocurrency beyond its limits, for example, to external wallets. Nor did he refute the amount of the commission.

“Our rate is based on data from cryptocurrency exchanges, with which we cooperate, plus a 1.5% margin to account for volatility,” he added.

Answering the security question, Wiley noted that Revolut is not yet releasing individual wallets.

“After the purchase, the cryptocurrency is securely stored in the“ virtual ”pool account, combining hot and cold wallets. This is a repository of private key virtual currency. We have our own internal accounting book in which your risk is recorded, which is reflected in the cryptocurrency account in the Revolut application, ”said a company representative.

The standard account type on Revolut provides the user with free access to the platform services: a current account in the UK and an international IBAN account number in euros. In a month, a client can exchange up to 5,000 pounds sterling ($ 6,640) and withdraw up to 200 pounds sterling ($ 265) without commission. Now added to them and work with digital assets.

Recall that in February, representatives of Revolut reported on the recruitment of a hacker team to crack their own system. Thus, the company intends to identify the vulnerabilities of its IT system.

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