Same day, at 12:04: here are the prices shown by various platforms to buy 1 BTC, and what I could theoretically get in BTC for €100K.
A note from me: the readings were taken at the same time, but there may be a gap of a few seconds, especially on an asset this volatile. After several checks, though, the gaps between platforms stayed roughly the same.
Revolut’s price is surprisingly lower than the others. That said, while it is bad news for sellers, it is good news for buyers. As you can see, for €100,000 invested, you would get 1.9499 BTC, more than anywhere else.
Let’s test it.
At 12:08, BTC moves to €51,277. I then get between 1.9298 BTC and 1.9313 BTC depending on the price, which swings quickly between 51,205 and €51,300. In other words, I am actually buying my Bitcoin at between €51,778 and €51,818. That is roughly 1% in fees.
What do the T&Cs say?
Under the crypto and precious metals fees for the Ultra plan, a link takes you… to the Metal page. Its instruction to scroll to the bottom then leads… to nothing at all. Neither the Metal page nor the Ultra page gives any information. The same problem shows up on every other page (Premium, Standard).
In fact, fees are never mentioned anywhere. So the rate displayed by Revolut is downright misleading.
That said, the 1% figure does match the fees for the Premium plan, according to the T&Cs.
This spread works both ways, buying and selling. When the displayed price is around €51,203, in reality for €51,203 I get 0.0984 BTC (i.e. €51,850 per BTC), but if I sell one BTC I get €50,555. That is a bid-ask spread of 1.2-1.25%.
Over the last 7 days, it was 0.03% on Kraken, 0.19% on Coinbase, 0.32% on Bitfinex and 0.6% on Bitstamp.2 Binance, the biggest exchange, reportedly shows 0.1%.3
Revolut does offer something extra, though: ease of use. That partly explains this extra spread-fee, which looks like a convenience tax. It is just a shame it is never clearly stated.
Because this convenience tax exists elsewhere, but it is disclosed (more or less clearly). On Binance, for example, you can do a spot EUR/BTC trade: for €1,000 I get 0.01952 BTC.
If I do not know how to use the tool, I can make the same transaction by card. As stated in its T&Cs, Binance charges 2% (€20) for card payments and shows it. However, you will notice the price is not the same. So I get 0.01889 BTC.
The difference is therefore about 3.2% (€33): 2% for the card, and 1.2% for convenience (or laziness).
This criticism comes up with quite a few players. Trade Republic defends itself by describing its OTC4 trades as an innovative business model. The German platform is regularly accused of prices that are not really market prices, even though its marketing says the app provides an average spread 43% better than the market average.5
To simplify as much as possible: these brokers take an order for a given amount, then try to find a seller at a lower price. The spread is their pay, without ever being disclosed to the investor.
The EMIR regulation6 laid a first stone towards regulating the issue, and a new legal framework is reportedly in the works (but I could not dig into it at length, so if anyone has information, I’m all ears).