Revolut’s New One-Click Buy Sends Crypto Straight to Trust Wallet — A Big Shift Toward Self-Custody in the EU

Instant purchases land in your wallet — not in a bank vault

Revolut has rolled out a new feature for customers in the EU that lets them buy crypto with fiat and have the tokens delivered straight to their Trust Wallet app. The change sounds small, but it shifts a key step in the user journey: instead of staying on an exchange or inside Revolut’s custody system, newly bought coins can appear immediately in a private wallet that the user controls. For people who want real ownership, it’s a meaningful convenience. For incumbents who make money from holding assets, it is a fresh challenge.

How the buy-and-send flow actually moves money and tokens

The process is simple from the user’s view: tap buy in Revolut, choose a crypto, pick Trust Wallet as the destination, confirm identity and payment, and the crypto shows up in the Trust Wallet address you gave. Under the hood the flow combines fiat on-ramps, licensed fiat custody, and on-chain settlement.

First, Revolut accepts the euro (or other EU fiat) payment from your debit card or bank account. Because Revolut operates under a licensed crypto service in the EU, it handles the KYC and AML checks at this step. Then a connected on-ramp partner — or Revolut’s own trading desk where available — buys the chosen token on the market. Instead of crediting a custodial ledger inside Revolut, the service triggers an on-chain transfer to the wallet address you provided.

The result is instant or near-instant settlement from the user’s point of view, but it still depends on standard blockchain realities: network congestion, confirmation times and the need for on-chain gas fees on networks like Ethereum. Revolut claims the process is immediate, but in practice speed varies by token and network. Fees will typically include Revolut’s buy spread or service fee plus any blockchain transaction cost; which party pays gas can differ by the product configuration.

Supported assets at launch are mostly mainstream coins and stablecoins — the ones with deep liquidity so Revolut and its partners can execute fiat trades fast. Niche tokens or freshly minted assets are unlikely to be covered at first because they are harder to source and transfer reliably at scale.

Real people: what changes for custody, security and everyday use

For retail users who have wanted true ownership without wrestling with complicated onramps, this is an attractive step. It removes the middleman step where people buy on an app and then manually withdraw to a wallet. That manual step used to be a frequent point of friction and confusion — now it can be automatic.

But automatic delivery to a self-custody app is not the same as bank-grade safety. Trust Wallet is a mobile hot wallet: it gives you private keys on your phone. That means if you lose your phone, get hacked, or fail to secure your recovery phrase, your crypto can be lost forever. For many casual users that trade-off will be acceptable — instant ownership and control — while power users will still prefer hardware wallets for long-term holdings.

The user experience also matters. Many people still find seed phrases scary. If Revolut pairs the flow with strong, clear onboarding — including simple warnings and recommended practices — adoption will be faster. Otherwise, users will buy and then make avoidable security mistakes. Another adoption barrier is fees: small buy amounts can be eaten up by spreads and gas, which discourages micro onramps.

Regulation in the background: MiCA, KYC and what that means

This product lives inside a new EU framework shaped by the Markets in Crypto-Assets rules and local licensing. Revolut’s crypto arm used a license based in Cyprus to expand regulated services across the EU. That regulated footing is important: it means Revolut must run identity checks and transaction monitoring at the fiat on-ramp, not at the self-custody endpoint.

From a compliance view regulators will watch two things. First, whether AML controls at purchase are robust enough given that funds leave centralized oversight as soon as they hit the blockchain. Second, whether firms correctly screen addresses — for example, blocking flows to known sanctioned or illicit addresses. Regulators may push for stronger address screening at the moment of transfer, which could complicate instant deliveries to any external wallet.

For investors, regulatory clarity reduces legal tail risk for Revolut and partners. But it also raises operational costs: on-chain monitoring, suspicious-activity reporting and address screening are expensive to run at scale. Changes in the rules could alter how attractive the product is as a revenue driver.

Will this move the market? On-chain flows, custody and exchange economics

At scale, easier direct-to-wallet onramps will nudge more fiat onto public blockchains. That’s good for token utility and for services that earn revenue from on-chain activity — decentralized exchanges, bridges and infrastructure providers could see more volume. It also increases the number of unique addresses holding tokens, which matters for on-chain metrics that investors watch.

But the shift also pressures companies that earn money by custodying user assets. If users buy and keep coins off-platform in their own wallets, centralized custodians and exchanges lose a sticky revenue stream: web-based lending, staking on custodial platforms, and custody fees. For publicly traded crypto platforms that rely on assets under custody to drive fee income and product cross-sell, that’s a risk. At the same time, fintech firms that own the onramp — like Revolut — can still capture revenue at the point of sale.

Token demand could rise modestly as buying gets simpler, but the long-term price effect will depend on whether users hold or quickly trade the assets. If most buyers withdraw to self-custody and hold, that reduces circulating supply on exchanges and can support prices. If they move on-chain and trade in DeFi, it could boost volumes without changing net holders.

Who’s competing, what to watch next, and the short-term outlook

This move puts Revolut alongside other onramp players that aim to make self-custody easier. Coinbase (COIN) and big wallets and providers have been pushing quick withdrawals for years; on the fintech side, PayPal (PYPL) and native wallet makers are experimenting with direct-send features. The real battleground will be who can combine smooth UX, low fees and strong compliance.

Key metrics to watch in the coming months: the number of wallet-addressed purchases, average ticket size, on-chain inflows tied to Revolut-originated buys, and any regulatory guidance about address screening. Product rollouts beyond initial EU markets, or extension to hardware wallets, would be a clear sign of momentum.

Bottom line: this integration is a win for mainstream self-custody because it removes a big pain point. For investors, it’s a mixed picture — it should boost on-chain adoption and traffic, which helps infrastructure and token markets, but it also chips away at custody-dependent revenue for some incumbents. The most likely near-term outcome is a modest rise in on-chain activity and stronger competition among onramps — with risks centered on user security and evolving regulation.

Sources

• linkedin.com
• coindesk.com
• coindesk.com
• coindesk.com
• indices.coindesk.com
• coindesk.com