Revolut Business account as a professional crypto trader - active or passive nonfinancial entity? What are the consequences?

[chickenloop]

Hey community,

just got your forum recommended by a friend. I relocated to Cyprus and set up a LTD there. Now, with that being done, I am in the process of creating a revolut business account. For the LTD business (and since Cyprus is not very crypto-friendly), I stated that I do mostly IT services. Now, for the Revolut business account, I tried stating that I am a crypto trader, and they want to know now if I am a:

- Financial Institution
- Active Non Financial Entity
- Passive Non Financial Entity


I mostly trade crypto (+50% of my income) and do some advisory gigs and other jobs here and then.

What should I state for this question, and what are the general consequences? I guess this is an important question since at some point there might be AML checks and they will look through all the account activity.

Appreciate any help you can give on this topic. Thank you.

 

[alley]

Since you have registered a company in Cyprus and informed Revolut that you are a crypto trader, you need to notify them that you fall under the category of Active Non-Financial Entity - otherwise, I think you might encounter problems later on in the process.

If it were passive, i.e., Passive Non-Financial Entity (PNFE), then you would not be actively trading with crypto but rather buying them and letting them sit or similar, and thus you would not be actively trading in the markets with your cryptos. So, that would be incorrect, and you would encounter problems.

 

[chickenloop]

Since you have registered a company in Cyprus and informed Revolut that you are a crypto trader, you need to notify them that you fall under the category of Active Non-Financial Entity - otherwise, I think you might encounter problems later on in the process.

If it were passive, i.e., Passive Non-Financial Entity (PNFE), then you would not be actively trading with crypto but rather buying them and letting them sit or similar, and thus you would not be actively trading in the markets with your cryptos. So, that would be incorrect, and you would encounter problems.

Thanks for your fast answer. I have not confirmed yet that I am a crypto trader, but I should do that anyway because with AML checks, that is pretty obvious, and also, there should be no downsides since Revolut is pretty crypto-friendly, right?

 

[alley]

yes right.

You can't avoid it with the activity you have. You can certainly lie your way around corners right now with them and just hope they don't discover it, but they will, and then you'll be thrown into a major investigation, and your money will be frozen in the meantime. I would say it's not worth it.