Following interest gained from its “Learn & Earn” incentivised crypto-education program, prominent fintech Revolut is launching 22 more crypto tokens for trading on the Australian version of its platform.
The new batch of crypto assets brings the Aussie platform’s total available for buying and selling to 55, and includes: LINK, AAVE, COMP, CRV, SUSHI, 1INCH, MIR, OGN, BAT, ENJ, SKL, CTSI, STORJ, RLC, KNC, KEEP, CHZ, NU, NKN, BAND, TRB and last but not least, SHIB.
There are some interesting additions there – several big DeFi protocols, leading oracle coins such as Chainlink and Band, gaming ecosystem Enjin, an underrated blockchain scaling solution in Skale, the fan token Chiliz and popular meme coin Shiba Inu.
Stockhead spoke with Matt Baxby, CEO of Australia at Revolut, to learn a bit more about the new offerings, why launching them now is a good idea, and the firm’s overall crypto/Web3 outlook.
An all-time high for consumer interest
Hey Matt. Another 22 assets is a huge addition to the Revolut crypto-trading stable in one swoop. Can you tell us why you’ve decided now is a good time to go large on that?
Yep, it’s mainly to do with our data. While trading volumes across the industry are definitely lower than they were 12 months ago, our data’s actually telling us that consumer interest in crypto in Australia is at an all time high.
[Revolut provided Stockhead with some stats to back that up. Since last year, the number of Australian crypto users on the platform has nearly doubled with a 73% increase; in the past two months new, active people using crypto on Revolut in Australia has grown 300% – this time last year, one in 50 of the fintech’s retail customers was using its crypto platform; it’s now one in 10.]
Has your Learn & Earn crypto program managed to bring in more users?
That’s definitely a factor. Less than a week into the launch, we saw a 10% increase in our crypto users and there’s been more than 30,000 lessons completed so far. That also pointed to us that the consumer appetite is there.
So that too made us thought to strike while the iron is hot and broaden out our offering further with additional tokens.
You chose Polkadot (DOT) as the first token to incentivise Learn & Earn participants. What made you choose that coin, and indeed all the other new offerings?
We have a very specific framework for any new tokens we look at, and it’s largely based on customer demand that we see across the market. Our approach with that is to always be curated for the Australian market and what we glean to be the demand from our local customers.
Is the market demand for the new coin offerings partly to do with high liquidity on trading those particular tokens?
Liquidity is a super important consideration. The process for choosing the tokens is really a combination of where we’ve seen interest in demand across the industry, combined with risk assessment around the right level of liquidity, then assessing the technology risks, too.
‘A generational change’ in finance
How strategically important is crypto to Revolut?
In a lot of ways, it’s absolutely core to our strategy, which is centred around providing a means for people to manage their entire financial lives.
Providing safe and easy exposure to alternative asset classes, and actually learning about things like crypto – that’s a really critical part of what we’re trying to achieve.
Do you think scepticism towards crypto as an asset class is dying down?
Yeah, although I think there will always be segments where that scepticism will never leave. But I think there’s a generational change that’s happening in finance, banking, and wealth.
I think, particularly younger generations are much more open to a different way of thinking about how they manage their financial life.
What do you think might help crypto to be embraced further into the mainstream?
I think crypto education and regulatory clarity are both really important.
Regarding the latter, we’ve always advocated for the right level of regulation to help build confidence in the industry. We’ve made submissions to the Senate committee, for instance, and have definitely been involved in that conversation here in Australia.
And as for education, we’re all about driving a strong degree of financial literacy, which includes crypto. I think it’s the educational side in a lot of ways that differentiates us from other crypto platforms, payment providers, or even banks.
What do you think about the Albanese government’s token-mapping, crypto-auditing exercise?
We’ve been positive on it. The government and regulators taking an active interest in crypto and DeFi is a positive move.
I think Treasury taking that first step to map tokens in the local markets as a precursor towards regulating is a good thing because it means the the depth of understanding will build where we can hopefully end up with innovation-friendly, fit-for-purpose regulations.
‘Crypto is here to stay’
Has your attitude towards crypto wavered at all or changed during this bear market?
No, and that’s because we think crypto is here to stay. That’s reflected in the level of interest we’re seeing. Hopefully our numbers support that. They include good stats like one in 10 of our retail users are now using crypto compared with this time last year, which was one in 50.
But Web3, metaverse, NFTs – they’re all really interesting developments and ones we’re watching closely. Globally, too, we’re continuing to invest in crypto. In fact, I think we’ve actually tripled our crypto head count.
In Australia, the driver of our crypto roadmap will be based on the demands of our local customers. Again, that comes down to providing crypto in an easy, accessible, digestible way and providing engaging education around it.
We’ll keep watching the crypto space keenly – we want to keep the momentum going with it that we’re seeing on our platform.
Stockhead and Revolut have not provided, endorsed or otherwise assumed responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this article.