Revolut adds Gibraltar DLT licence to crypto toolkit
Regulation & Gov ·
The fintech company has picked up a distributed ledger technology licence from Gibraltar regulators, a step that broadens the regulatory base it can draw on for crypto services outside the UK and EU.
The approval was reported by The Block, which described it as part of Revolut's push to support international expansion plans for its digital asset offerings. Gibraltar's DLT framework is a licensing regime distinct from UK or EU authorizations, meaning this credential gives Revolut a separate legal footing to operate crypto-related services in that jurisdiction rather than relying on passporting from elsewhere.
The move fits a pattern of the company stacking jurisdiction-specific approvals rather than depending on one regulator. Revolut has also secured in-principle approval from Dubai's VARA for crypto trading through its main app and through Revolut X, a separate venue built for more active traders, according to the Revolut tracker on leviathan.news. Taken together, the Gibraltar and Dubai moves point to a company treating crypto licensing as a multi-region project rather than a single regulatory relationship.
The licence lands alongside a run of business milestones. Revolut has reported $2.3 billion in pre-tax profit, $6 billion in revenue, and more than 75 million customers, figures that accompanied a $115 billion valuation reached through an employee share sale. The company has also laid out plans for a 2027 U.S. bank offering stablecoin access and FDIC-insured accounts, and it rolled out a physical crypto card with zero exchange fees across the UK and EEA. Those developments sit alongside a separate decision to block some users from buying USDT starting July 6 and auto-convert existing balances after August 31, a move that narrows one part of its token lineup even as its licensing footprint widens.
What remains unclear is how quickly Revolut will activate crypto services under the new Gibraltar licence, which products it intends to offer there, and whether the approval changes anything for existing UK and EU customers already using the app's crypto features. It is also not yet known how the Gibraltar licence interacts with Revolut's pending Dubai approval or its longer-term U.S. banking plans, since each jurisdiction carries its own rules on custody, withdrawals, and token availability. Further detail on the scope of Gibraltar-licensed activity would clarify whether this is primarily a compliance formality or a foundation for new product launches in the region.