Mastercard opens doors to US for Revolut (2)

As part of the expansion plans, Revolut, the crypto-compatible App announced its partnership extension with Mastercard. This will most likely open some crypto functionalities in the U.S. for the cardholders.

Making entry into the US market is not easy especially when there is crypto involved. But Revolut holds an advantage in this case. As a fintech startup, cryptocurrency is just a part of its services. And in its Oct 22 press release, the UK based Revolut made no mention of the card being cryptocurrency specific.

However, there is a catch. With the Revolut App, the US users exchange their crypto against digital money. And spend this money using the Revolut debit card. As per the Revolut website, they are banking alternative for crypto: “With this in mind, we have developed an alternative phased approach which allows us to be the first banking alternative to offer crypto — from right within the app — with the blessing of our partners.”

According to the press release, the new Mastercard partnership will take Revolut beyond Europe. It is already planning to expand into the Asia Pacific and Latin American markets.

Revolut started offering cryptocurrency support in 2017. Back then it enabled the exchange of Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin. As the user demand increased, it also added Bitcoin Cash and Ripple to its support list.

This is no good news for Coinbase

The US has always poised strict regulations in the crypto sphere. Lately, Coinbase has been trying hard to penetrate the US market. But as a full cryptocurrency startup, it is up against lots of hurdles. So it stays in the UK and Europe only.

In the future, when Coinbase is able to enter the US markets, it might receive strong competition from Revolut.

Meanwhile, the Revolut leadership states, this partnership is driven by the plans to expand globally. And not to facilitate cryptocurrency card payments in the US.

But it is quite possible that Revolut’s App will bridge the crypto-fiat gap for US customers.

Previously we covered Mastercard deboarding the Libra Association wagon.

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