Subsidiary Revolut Global Digital Assets Ltd received a distributed ledger technology provider licence from Gibraltar regulator GFSC on 19 October. The licence will be used to offer crypto services such as trading, custody and staking to customers outside the UK and the European Economic Area. Target markets have not yet been announced. Revolut says it has 80 million customers, 16 million of whom use crypto services.

What it means: Revolut already holds a MiCA licence for the European Economic Area through Cyprus and covers the UK under a separate regime. The Gibraltar licence completes the picture for the other markets the company is expanding into, such as Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. Rather than obtaining a separate crypto licence in each country from scratch, it uses one central entity with a recognised regulatory framework and then adapts to local requirements. Gibraltar was one of the first jurisdictions with a dedicated regime for blockchain businesses and hosts several providers. For customers inside the EU, including in Greece, the news changes nothing directly, since they are served by the European entity under MiCA with the protections it provides. It does show that crypto is now a core part of Revolut's strategy rather than a side product. Its crypto user base, one in five customers, makes it one of the largest providers in the world, bigger than many specialist exchanges. Staking services outside the EU will be subject to local rules, which in some countries are stricter.

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