The UK banking app Revolut has said it could face a backlash over its support for energy-intensive sectors such as crypto and AI, as it posted a 57% increase in profits for last year.
The fintech, which can now launch as a fully fledged UK bank after a five-year wait for regulatory approval, warned in its 2025 annual report that such activities posed a “reputational risk”.
Cryptocurrency mining, particularly for bitcoin, and AI datacentres demand large amounts of power, with competition for electricity supplies only getting steeper since the US-Israel war on Iran sent energy prices soaring over the past month.
Revolut, which offers crypto trading, wrote in its annual report: “Shifting attitudes towards energy-intensive activities, including artificial intelligence, metals mining, and the carbon footprint of high-profile cryptocurrencies could also affect demand for Revolut’s services and present reputational risks.”
The company also reported a £1.7bn pre-tax profit for 2025, with revenues climbing 46% to £4.5bn.
It added 16 million individual customers, taking the total to 68.3 million, including 13 million in the UK, while business customers also grew by a third, to 767,000. It hopes to reach 100 million customers around the world by the middle of next year.
Revolut applied for a banking licence in the US this month and said it now operated as a licensed bank in more than 30 of its 40 markets worldwide.
The group has started rolling out current accounts to a small number of new UK customers and will gradually expand this.
The chief executive, Nik Storonsky, who launched Revolut in 2015, hailed another “landmark year”.
“As we transition into a truly global bank, we are proving that our technology-driven operating model continues to drive rapid expansion and record profitability,” he said. “A decade into this journey, we have only just begun to show what is possible.”
The company, which was valued at $75bn (£55bn) in a fundraising round last year, plans to offer a wider array of banking services in the future, such as lending and other products. Entering the home loan market, Revolut launched mortgage refinancing in Lithuania last May. It says one in five working-age adults now use Revolut in Europe.
Last year’s annual reported detailed how Revolut has been tracking staff behaviour, granting or docking points on an internal “Karma” system that is feeding into the UK bank’s decisions on bonus payouts. It said in its latest report that it had reviewed the Karma framework to increase standardisation of the point allocation system and make the process and impact on variable remuneration clearer to all staff.
