Revolut opens cryptocurrency to all users, encourages diversification
The neobank is rolling out crypto availability to its entire userbase.
Neobank Revolut has opened cryptocurrency trading to all its customers according to CrowdFund Insider. Previously, the feature was only available for its premium users.
This comes about a month after Revolut allowed its premium and metal customers to buy and sell gold on the platform.
It seems worth noting here, for the sake of clarity, that "metal" is a Revolut membership tier.
Cryptoversification
It's a good time "to explore different ways of diversifying", Revolut says, noting that while crypto and gold are risky, they can also be rewarding.
It describes their value as being based simply on scarcity.
"Gold is a finite resource, meaning that its value can go up, which is what can make it a good investment," Revolut says.
Scarcity could be in short supply these days.
Neither gold or Bitcoin has generally been on most retail investors' radars though. In both cases, it's very difficult to get an accurate sense of how many people actually own them, but it's estimated to be fairly similar for both gold and Bitcoin.
Surveys have found that roughly 7% of Americans own Bitcoin, while, as far as anyone knows, the percentage of Americans that own gold is in the 10% ballpark.
Institutional investors have gravitated towards both though.
Central bank gold purchases reached a 50-year high in 2018, and then topped that amount in 2019. It's tough to put a finger on institutional Bitcoin interest, but the fact that Bitcoin recently plummeted along with gold and other assets in the concerted global sell-off suggests that there is indeed some institutional Bitcoin interest in play.
"The reason for the drop in BTC price is a direct result of institutions unloading the coin in a rush to cash as soon as the virus impact was identified. It happened across all assets, but what it proved was that institutions actually did invest over the last few years in crypto," said Thomson Reuters technologist Joseph Raczynski.
As more companies like Revolut start offering more assets like gold and Bitcoin, institutional interest could keep making its way to main street.
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Disclosure: The author holds BNB and BTC at the time of writing.
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