7 Comments
User's avatar
almc's avatar

Another great article. Re: your final request, I think a deep dive into the Terra network and in particular its facilitation of online and offline retail payments via Chai in South Korea is a good fit. See:

https://medium.com/terra-money/terra-partners-with-mobile-payment-app-chai-29c593f0a364 and https://ark-invest.com/podcast/ep98-terra/

Expand full comment
arun sinhmar's avatar

thank you for the article, lots of good information!

Expand full comment
agglutinator's avatar

Thanks Marc, great writing (again)

On what basis is Revolut profitable? Based on the public filings (FY2019), the company was still losing money. And crypto might have improved their financials, but I doubt that they turned profitable, especially that travel hasn't picked up yet (the largest part of their income is still interchange fees)

Expand full comment
Marc Rubinstein's avatar

It’s what the chairman said in the interview linked. Don’t know how sustainable that is though.

Expand full comment
Eric Novinson's avatar

I've heard that other neobanks also became profitable recently because of the crypto trading fees. I've also heard that PPP loans were lucrative for many of them in 2020.

Expand full comment
agglutinator's avatar

Thank you. A >£100m p.a. hole seems a bit large to be filled with crypto only, but I was surprised by the number of crypto wallets opened that was quoted in the interview

Expand full comment