Revolut introduces 11 new cryptocurrencies as users flock to crypto trading

Revolut introduces 11 new cryptocurrencies as users flock to crypto trading

Savings and Investment

The new coins take the total available cryptocurrencies on Revolut’s platform to over 20.

Image source: Revolut

Digital banking service Revolut has taken yet another step closer to becoming a one-stop-shop for all of its users’ financial needs.

The fintech, which is well on its way to becoming a financial ‘super app’, has added 11 new cryptocurrencies for its UK and EU customers to trade, taking its total offered up to over 20 coins.

In a blog post, Revolut said: “You asked for new tokens, we’ve delivered. We’ve been tracking hot tokens and top movers to bring our UK and EU customers 11 new cryptocurrencies.”

Users will now be able to trade Cardano, Uniswap, Synthetix, Yearn Finance, Uma, Bancor, Filecoin, Numeraire, Loopring, Orchid, and The Graph, as well as the other 30+ cryptocurrencies already available on Revolut’s trading platform.

As it stands, Filecoin is the most expensive coin to be added, coming in at £ 110.42 per coin, while Cardano is the least expensive, currently sitting at around £0.88 per coin.

To help familiarise users with the new coins, Revolut also provided a short blurb about each new coin and reminded users of the risks and volatility surrounding cryptocurrencies.

Earlier this year, Revolut issued a warning to its customers about Ripple’s cryptocurrency XRP after several exchanges began delisting the electronic currency.

Despite warning its customers away from XRP, Revolut’s users could still trade the embattled coin as long as its partner exchange continues to allow it to do so.

Unlike other crypto wallets, Revolut’s users can’t actually remove their purchased coins from the Revolut app, rather they are held “in cold storage with some of the best custodians in the crypto game.”

A recent AltFi investigation has discovered that Revolut could potentially be sitting on a pile of crypto worth around $1bn and while users can’t actually remove their coins from their Revolut wallets, it’s a clear sign that crypto trading is increasingly popular for Revolut’s users.

Both stock and crypto trading has boomed over the past 12 months, even more so since the beginning of this year with the rise of ‘Meme Stocks’ and the Reddit vs Wall Street saga, which prompted the likes of Revolut to halt trading of certain stocks thanks to unexpected volatility.

UPDATE 09-04-2021 - A previous version of this article misstated the amount of cryptocurrencies available on Revolut’s trading platform.

Duffy podcast aims to take cryptic out of crypto – Daily Business

Money advice

Jim Duffy: making cryptocurrency ‘less scary’

Scottish Cryptocurrency enthusiast and investor Jim Duffy has launched his debut podcast The Crypto Standard which looks to take the ‘cryptic out of crypto’.

Through a deep dive into all facets of the industry he looks at what it is, how to get started, and deciphers the industry lingo.

“This show is not about the usual Bitcoin and cryptocurrency “to the moon” male-oriented fraternity,” said the former head of the startup accelerator Entrepreneurial Spark.

“Rather, it is all about simplifying crypto for all to make it less scary, more understandable and more fun for a family audience. A huge thanks to Gokhshtein Media and Zumo for helping in this mission.”

With a view to being accessible to all, the show aims to make crypto a staple of the mainstream with more emphasis on how easy it is to get involved.

Follow Daily Business on LinkedIn

Co-host and nephew Jordan stated: “The show is designed to be listened to by everyone from your grandson to your granny – crypto isn’t something that only a select few can get access to and for young people especially it’s a sector that is booming, while very normal.”

Indeed, amongst millennials especially, cryptocurrency shows no signs of slowing, with a recent Zumo consumer survey showing that over 50% of 18–24-year-olds believing it will be accepted as a form of payment in the next 10 years.

Zumo marketing director Amelie Arras said: “Our mission at Zumo is to make the benefit of blockchain and cryptocurrencies accessible for all. To do that, it means taking the cryptic out of crypto.

“It’s great to be working with Jim, together we will bring fun and accessibility to the space. I invite fellow women who are in the space to now contact us, and speak about their stories.”

David Gokhshtein, The Founder at Gokhshtein Media and CEO of PAC Protocol stated, “We at Gokhshtein Media are extremely passionate on making cryptocurrency a professional and well-recognised asset class.

“But, that takes time and great communication by all of us involved in this exciting new technology. Supporting the guys at crypto-standard in their podcast is exactly the right thing to do to help educate people in the power of cryptocurrency.”

Support Daily Business

Your one-off donation from as little as £20 helps support quality journalism Contribute here

Could a ‘Crypto Climate Accord’ erase cryptocurrencies’ carbon footprint?

A newly announced “Crypto Climate Accord” aims to erase cryptocurrencies’ legacy of climate pollution. That’s a tall order considering the enormous amounts of energy that the most popular cryptocurrencies — bitcoin and Ethereum — consume. The loose goals laid out in the plan so far face potentially insurmountable challenges.

A 2040 target for the crypto industry to reach “net zero” emissions

The “accord” is led by the private sector — not governments — and outlines a few preliminary objectives. It seeks to transition all blockchains to renewable energy by 2030 or sooner. It sets a 2040 target for the crypto industry to reach “net zero” emissions, which would involve reducing pollution and turning to strategies that might be able to suck the industry’s historical carbon dioxide emissions out of the atmosphere.

Lastly and perhaps most realistically, it aims to develop an open-source accounting standard that can be used to consistently measure emissions generated by the crypto industry. They also want to develop software that can verify how much renewable energy a blockchain uses.

If achieved, those goals would solve a very real problem. Bitcoin alone has roughly the same carbon footprint annually as Hong Kong, while Ethereum’s annual carbon emissions rival Lithuania’s. Their climate pollution is growing even as scientists’ research warns that global emissions need to be cut almost in half this decade to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

The accord has support from some influential names in climate action and the crypto industry — including cryptocurrency company Ripple, blockchain technology conglomerate Consensys, billionaire climate crusader Tom Steyer, and the United Nations-appointed “climate champions.”

While tackling the environmental damage done by the crypto industry might be a worthy challenge, critics say the broad goals are unlikely to result in meaningful change.

“Some things just can’t be fixed,” says economist Alex de Vries.

“Some things just can’t be fixed.”

Unfortunately for the Crypto Climate Accord, bitcoin is the biggest player in the game, and it’s likely to cause the accord the most trouble because of how much energy it uses. Bitcoin is purposely inefficient — which is a problem renewables can’t fix. It uses a model called “proof of work” to keep its ledgers secure. “Miners” who verify transactions to get new coins do so by using energy-guzzling machines to solve increasingly difficult puzzles. (Ethereum also uses proof of work but has said for years that it will eventually transition to another model.)

Related The climate controversy swirling around NFTs

Those machines will continue to compete for renewable energy with arguably more essential needs, like keeping the power on in people’s homes. And if cryptocurrencies increase electricity demand beyond available renewable resources, utilities might turn to fossil fuels. That’s why cleaning up energy sources and increasing energy efficiency are two sides of the same coin when it comes to tackling climate change.

Regardless, the accord’s founders are optimistic about a greener future for bitcoin. “I’ve been in conversation with folks from the bitcoin ecosystem, it’s a pretty simple pitch,” says Jesse Morris, chief commercial officer of the nonprofit Energy Web Foundation, which is spearheading the initiative. “If we can make bitcoin green, it will be much easier and lower risk for other organizations to come in and buy more Bitcoin.”

“If we can make bitcoin green, it will be much easier and lower risk for other organizations to come in and buy more bitcoin.”

Bitcoin still accounts for more than half of the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization. But it is facing competition from newer cryptocurrencies that have found ways to be greener. Other cryptocurrencies use different blockchain technology than bitcoin and consume very little energy in comparison as a result. For those cryptocurrencies, like Ripple’s XRP, running on renewables could be more feasible.

And while renewable energy costs have fallen dramatically, luring bitcoin miners to places with abundant renewable energy would likely require heavy subsidies to keep them from turning to cheaper, dirtier fuel sources, de Vries says. “Just the sound of that — It sounds really wrong,” he says. “Why would you want to subsidize an industry that uses energy just because it is set up to waste resources?”

The new crypto accord, however, is “not about coming together and asking for subsidy by any means,” says Morris. “We just want to get everybody together and start nailing the action here.” Many blockchains, like bitcoin, were designed to be a decentralized system with no top-down oversight. So getting everyone on board, even within a single blockchain, will be a huge task.

The accord’s objectives are supposed to be fleshed out and finalized by the time a big United Nations climate conference rolls around in November. But Morris admits that the initial plans chase big aspirations rather than fine details. “So many of these other decarbonization efforts are very much thinking their way into acting,” Morris says. “Whereas in Crypto, because it’s kind of the Wild West, it’s about acting our way into new thinking.”