What Banks Are Crypto Friendly? (Monzo, Revolut, & MORE)

30 Nov 2023 by Rory Kejzerko 8 min read

‘What banks are crypto friendly’ is a question many speculative traders are now asking themselves, as with the crypto bull run now firmly on the horizon, Q4 2023 is most certainly the time for DeFi enthusiasts to get their admin in order.

Spearheaded by developments in big name Spot Bitcoin ETFs coming to market, more and more retail and institutional investments appear to be pouring into the crypto space, as demonstrated by the general uptick in prices over the past couple of months.

Intuitively, many of this cycle’s crypto hopefuls may not have much experience when it comes to DeFi practices… be it setting up crypto wallets and centralised exchange (CEX) accounts, purchasing and selling tokens, or cashing-out holdings for fiat.

As it should be, each of such steps deserve their own bespoke article, which is why this article will solely focus on what banks are crypto friendly.

By virtue, all of the following banks can be described as digitally-native, innovative, and relatively nascent. Additionally, they’re solutions for those plagued by crypto-averse traditional banks that have begun flexing their centralised muscles by prohibiting certain crypto-related activities (i.e. they hate bullish DeFi-bound outflows).

In turn, this is an urgent call for crypto newcomers to find out what banks are crypto friendly…

What Banks Are Crypto Friendly? - A Review

Ally Bank (USA)

Ally Bank is a crypto banking solution that’s great for customers in the USA.

First and foremost, the bank is FDIC insured and natively online - therefore meaning that its customer support service is open 24/7.

Although its app doesn’t support in-app crypto purchases, it allows you to send funds to crypto exchanges/ DeFi platforms at will - meaning there’s no need to worry about transactions being frozen.

That being said, crypto exchange Coinbase is integrated on the app, meaning an Ally Bank x Coinbase set-up could be a productive direction to go down.

The bank also offers a savings account with an impressive 1.4% APY, and it also allows customers to invest in stocks without incurring commission fees. In turn, this can see them fee-lessly ape-in on crypto products such as the Osprey Bitcoin Trust (OBTV), the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), and perhaps future Spot Bitcoin ETFs from the likes of BlackRock and Fidelity etc.

In turn, whilst its lack of direct crypto exposure is a slight downfall, Ally’s crypto fund options and Coinbase integration makes it a proficient banking option for crypto traders. And with the former feature in mind, Ally is perhaps best for investors who aren’t bothered about self custody options (or education for that matter).

Fidor Bank (Germany)

Fidor Bank is a financial institution that’s consistently ranked as a preferred option for crypto enthusiasts since 2014. Serving as a digital-only bank based out of Germany, Fidor has maintained its status as a top-choice crypto banking solution within the country.

Despite operating exclusively in Germany, its reputation as one of the most crypto-friendly banks has come to be thanks to the straightforward nature of its account set-up process. Additionally, its associated fees are relatively reasonable - standing at only €5 per month - and these can also be mitigated if you engage in more than 10 transactions within a month.

In 2014, Fidor forged a partnership with well-known German crypto exchange, Bitcoin.de. Such collaboration enabled Fidor's customers to swiftly deposit funds for cryptocurrency purchases - and as of today, the company has expanded its partnerships to include Kraken (serving as a major funding provider).

In turn, Fidor’s affiliations with the likes of Bitcoin.de and Kraken render it an ideal choice for crypto traders residing in Germany (especially those who already use Kraken). Further, Fidor’s direct partnerships with notorious crypto entities imply that crypto transactions are unlikely to end/ be frozen on the platform any time soon.

Monzo (UK)

Now that we’ve covered the USA and Germany, it’s now time to cater for those in the crypto hub of the UK.

As is the case with Ally and Fidor, Monzo is another crypto-friendly, digital-only bank. From the off, a distinct advantage of using Monzo is that you incur zero fees for card payments…irrespective of which country you’re in, as well as what account type you have.

When it comes to its crypto prowesses, Monzo supports crypto fund funnels across many major crypto exchanges and entities - however it still resides on the side of caution when it comes to a few dubious platforms.

Whilst this may appear bearish on surface, we’re sure that Monzo has unilateral support for its customer’s crypto endeavours, as back in the Binance crisis of June/July 2021, it was one of the few banks to continue supporting user deposits being sent to crypto exchanges.

Revolut (USA, UK, Majority of EU, and more)

Often revered as the most crypto-friendly bank out there, Revolut is an international online bank with over 15 million customers from across the USA, UK, almost all of the EU, and more.

With just a selfie and a bit of personal information needed, users can seamlessly launch their Revolut account (which comes with a free Visa card that can be ordered on the app).

Further, Revolut’s strong-reputation across the DeFi space comes as it offers direct, on-app crypto purchase features. And with its disallowance of crypto withdrawals now being a thing of the past, the platform now allows crypto cash-outs from across 100 exchanges.

Although touted as the most crypto-friendly bank out there, Revolut may not be the most crypto-economical option. This is because its crypto purchases have a base fee of 2.5%, and an additional 0.5% if you trade over £1000. Here, users can only lower such fees by upgrading to either premium or metal accounts, however this will only lower the base fee to 1.5%.

Nonetheless - and irrespective of its fee structure - Revolut serves as one of the safest banking solutions for engaging in crypto trading.

BankProv

BankProv - previously known as The Provident Bank - is the only bank on this list to be of the ‘traditional’ accord.

Being over 200 years old, BankProv is one of the oldest banks in the US - however contrary to the routes of its fellow antiquitous banking institutions, it’s now branding itself as a FinTech leader that gives off ‘start-up vibes’.

Another distinguishing factor of BankProv is that its services are more geared towards business opportunities, as opposed to personal accounts.

However, when it comes to its crypto offerings, the bank hosts its own DeFi segment wherein crypto is listed as a service category.

Here - and in addition to free-flying crypto deposits - the platform has a partnership with Anchorage Digital to offer crypto-backed loans (namely Ethereum). These come alongside the bank’s industry-leading API banking (a.k.a. open banking) and ProvXchange Network.

As is the case with others in this list, a bank with formal crypto partnerships indicates long-term bullishness towards empowering users through crypto deposit allowance.

What Banks Are Crypto Friendly?... And Which Aren’t

With the good comes the bad…and this is certainly the case when figuring out what banks are crypto friendly.

As intuition suggests, crypto-unfriendly banks are often those that see DeFi as a direct threat to their fiat services. As you can guess, such culprits are typically well-established finance houses, such as HSBC, JP Morgan, Barclays, Santander, and other household-name banks.

Whilst there’s a host of reasons as to why there is a huge discrepancy between crypto bullish and bearish banks, it mainly comes down to the traditions of the different entities…as whilst the former are usually ran as forwards-thinking start-ups that are looking to gain a piece of the FinTech pie, the latter is often dictated by older corporate figures (or may I say, boomers) that are slow to react, understand and accept change.

What Banks Are Crypto Friendly? - Conclusion

An important note to preface at the end of our list is that the banks mentioned are by no means the only crypto-friendly banks out there - meaning that upon your own research, you may stumble across some more.

Here, if you ever come across a different banking option that looks to be crypto-friendly, we recommend checking the company’s news for any crypto-related partnerships and updates.

Further, the crypto movement is slowly seeping its way into mainstream finance, as by virtue, it’s inevitable given that companies must cater to changing customer demands. With this in mind, seeking-out what banks are crypto friendly may not always be an urgent matter, as not only will your TradFi bank likely allow limited crypto fund deposits already, but it may also be open to broadening its service offerings in the future.

On the downside, concerns over the security of digital banks have been raised in the past, so it's always a good idea to suppress your transition into these types of banks (i.e. always maintain some level of traditional fiat dealings with your current bank). In doing so, you will likely ensure a healthy balance between the best safety practices and flexibility when trading crypto.

Ultimately, the sentiment that banks must adopt crypto-friendly stances moving forwards is one that you should remember…and with this in mind, you could perhaps expect many more options to arise when researching what banks are crypto friendly in years to come.

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