Revolut has a crypto licence in Gibraltar, held by a company it set up there for the purpose. The Gibraltar government said on 19 October 2026, in press release 796/2026, that Revolut Global Digital Assets Limited now holds a permission under Part 7 of the Financial Services Act for three regulated DLT activities: transmitting and executing orders in virtual assets, holding virtual assets in custody, and virtual asset staking. Revolut did not say which countries the new entity will serve, or from when.
The Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) is the regulator behind the authorisation. Revolut described it to The Block as a Distributed Ledger Technology provider licence. The two descriptions cover the same thing: in Gibraltar, a DLT provider licence is a permission granted under Part 7 of the Act.
The same release carried a second, smaller piece of news. Revolut has fully resumed signing up Gibraltar residents to its electronic money and payments app. New residents can open accounts again after work between Revolut, the trade ministry and the GFSC, the release said. It did not say why onboarding had been restricted or for how long.
What Revolut’s Gibraltar crypto licence covers
The scope goes further than a plain buy-and-sell service. Order transmission and execution means the entity can take a customer’s order for a crypto asset and carry it out. Custody means it can hold the assets on the customer’s behalf. Staking means it can lock some of those assets in proof-of-stake networks and pass on the rewards.
That is roughly the set of crypto services Revolut already offers through its other entities. Nothing in the release or in the company statement describes a new product. Product names, fees, the coins on offer and staking terms for this entity have not been published.
Readers new to staking can start with our glossary entry on staking, which explains how rewards are earned and what the lock-up risks are.
Revolut said the new entity will support its growing international presence and its crypto offer in what it calls key expansion markets, according to the company statement relayed by The Block and FX News Group. Emil Urmanshin, its general manager for crypto and new bets (some outlets spell the name Urmashin), said in that statement that the GFSC authorisation reflects the company’s commitment to the highest regulatory standards. Target regions and rollout plans will come later, Revolut said, with no date attached.
Revolut now runs crypto through three regulated entities
Until now Revolut offered crypto through two entities, according to The Block. Revolut Ltd covers the UK. Revolut Digital Assets Europe Ltd covers the European Economic Area under MiCA, the EU’s crypto rulebook, with an authorisation from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) that Revolut announced on 23 October 2025. Gibraltar adds a third.
| Entity | Where it is regulated | Customers it serves (as of 19 October 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Revolut Ltd | United Kingdom | UK customers |
| Revolut Digital Assets Europe Ltd | Cyprus (CySEC), under MiCA | EEA customers, including France and Italy |
| Revolut Global Digital Assets Limited | Gibraltar (GFSC), Part 7 permission | Not announced: “international” markets, no list yet |
Sources: The Block, Gibraltar government release 796/2026, Cointelegraph.
The Cyprus licence matters most for EU readers. A MiCA authorisation from one national regulator can be passported to the other EEA countries, which is how Revolut serves customers in France, Italy and the rest of the area from Nicosia. Our guide to the MiCA regulation explains how that passport works.
Gibraltar sits outside the EU and the EEA, so in Coindaro’s reading of the rules a Gibraltar permission does not come with a MiCA passport. Revolut has not said this itself; it simply has not named any EEA market for the new entity, and it keeps its MiCA business in Cyprus. A crypto firm that wants to serve EU customers needs a MiCA licence from an EU regulator, as BingX did when it obtained one in Austria last week.
What changes for Revolut crypto users in the UK, France and Italy
Nothing, for now. Revolut has announced no transfer of existing customers to the Gibraltar entity, and no new terms. A UK user still deals with Revolut Ltd; a French or Italian user still has a contract with the Cyprus entity, under MiCA rules and CySEC supervision.
EEA users face a nearer date that has nothing to do with Gibraltar. ESMA has given EU crypto firms until January to stop offering stablecoins that are not MiCA-compliant, a rule that applies to Revolut’s Cyprus entity like any other.
Revolut gives two figures for its size: more than 80 million retail customers worldwide and more than 16 million crypto users, according to The Block. When it announced the Cyprus licence in October 2025, it counted 65 million customers and more than 14 million crypto users, Cointelegraph reported at the time.
Gibraltar has licensed DLT firms since 2018
Gibraltar brought in its DLT framework on 1 January 2018. Since then, any firm that uses distributed ledger technology in or from Gibraltar to store or transmit value belonging to others must be authorised by the GFSC as a DLT provider. Applicants go through a staged review of their business model, capital, managers, risk controls and IT, and must follow a set of regulatory principles that include keeping client assets separate from the firm’s own.
The government said in the same release that three more DLT permissions are expected to be issued this week. It did not name the firms.
Nigel Feetham KC MP, Gibraltar’s Minister for Trade and Industry, opened his statement with: “I welcome Revolut’s full resumption of customer onboarding in Gibraltar and the granting of this permission to its Gibraltar based subsidiary.” He put both results down to “constructive engagement and close collaboration between Revolut, the Government and the GFSC”, and thanked the regulator’s DLT supervisory team and Heidi Bocarisa, its Director of Specialist Regulation.
His stated aim is for Gibraltar residents to be able to use the services of large international fintech firms without the territory lowering its regulatory bar. Chief Minister Fabian Picardo KC MP added, in remarks relayed by FX News Group, that “Gibraltar has long led the way in establishing a rigorous regulatory environment for DLT firms”.
Gibraltar follows a UK bank, a US charter step and a euro stablecoin
The permission lands in a busy year for Revolut with regulators. In March, British regulators lifted the restrictions on its UK banking licence and Revolut Bank UK left its mobilisation phase. In August, Revolut began offering EURR, a euro-pegged stablecoin, to selected customers in Denmark, Poland and Portugal, with wider EEA availability planned for later this year. In September, the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave it conditional approval for a national bank charter. The Block lists all three alongside the Gibraltar news.
Each of these sits with a different regulator and covers a different business: deposits in the UK, a euro token in the EEA, banking in the US, and now crypto for markets Revolut has not yet named. The October 2025 MiCA licence from CySEC is the one that still governs crypto for EU customers.
Revolut has not said where, when or why
Revolut says the list of markets and launch dates will come later. It has not said whether customers outside the UK and the EEA who use its crypto services today will be moved to the Gibraltar entity, and it has given no reason for choosing Gibraltar.
There is one piece of context, and it is only context. On 10 June 2026 the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed sources, that the European Central Bank had barred Revolut’s European arm from onboarding new customers or making acquisitions outside the EEA. Revolut told the paper it was in “continuous and constructive dialogue” with its regulators, and the FT said it was unclear whether the restrictions still applied. That report concerned Revolut’s European banking business. Neither Revolut nor the Gibraltar government has connected it to the new crypto entity, and nothing on the record links the two.
The register details are also missing from the public material so far: the date the GFSC granted the permission, and whether it carries conditions. The next fact to watch is the government’s naming of the three further DLT permissions it expects this week.