CEO OF THE BANK 3.0 REVOLUT: "BITCOIN IS ABSOLUTELY NOT A SCAM"

Nikolay Storonsky, Managing Director of the 100% mobile Revolut Bank, seems to be in deep disagreement with Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who said "Bitcoin is a scam."

Revolut Logo

He said his 100% mobile banking solution would integrate some crypto-currencies by December.

An asset similar to gold

Nikolay Storonsky of Revolut For Mr. Storonsky, Bitcoin is far from being, as some think, a ponzi pyramid.

"Bitcoin is absolutely not a scam," he said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday.

The executive believes, however, that Bitcoin is mainly used for speculative purposes.

"The usefulness of gold, as a means of payment 'daily', is very limited. But there is still a vast market, huge volumes that are traded in the markets, and these volumes affect its price, "he explained.

"The answer to the question 'What is the true price of gold?' Nobody knows. It's the same with Bitcoin. Volumes are increasing, the price is exploding, but there is no implication of Bitcoin in the real world, it is rather limited. "

The man estimates that 99% of Bitcoin's transaction volumes would be "speculatively motivated," while only 1% of the traded amounts would be "real" applications.

A statement that some may call astonishing, since the number of merchants accepting payments in cryptocurrency seems to increase day by day.

This speculative dimension has often been the subject of comment from personalities in the world of finance. Tidjane Thiam, General Manager of Credit Suisse, explained that Bitcoin was the very definition of a speculative bubble.

For Mr Storonsky, who was a trader at Credit Suisse for a while, Bitcoin is relatively similar to another asset - oil.

"If you look at the oil market, 90% of the trading volume is tied to speculation, only 10% to 'real' purchases," he said.

A "strong demand" for the support of crypto-currencies on its application

The executive director of Revolut told CNBC that there was "high demand" from its customers, who would like to be able to take advantage of a feature allowing them to buy digital currencies through its application.

This trend corroborates the results of a recent survey - 45% of 18- to 24-year-olds surveyed said they would like the opportunity to transfer some of the money placed on their bank account to a savings account in Bitcoin.

Mobile application RevolutRevolut currently provides contactless prepaid Mastercard cards, the ability to convert money to 26 different currencies and a peer-to-peer payment service.

When the feature in question is available, it will allow users to buy, sell and hold multiple cryptocurrencies - including Bitcoins, Ethers and Litecoins.

Another Fintech company, Square, has recently offered the opportunity, for the time being to a handful of its customers, to buy and sell Bitcoin.

Revolut said last Friday it reached 1 million users and attracted 3,500 new customers every day. The startup fintech recently applied for a European banking license, and hopes to offer such credit services.

Referring to the rapid growth of his business, Storonsky said, "The reason we are going so fast is that we bring real value to our customers."

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