Revolut began blocking accounts of Russians: new sanctions and failures to load residence permits

Revolut Bank began to block the accounts of some clients from Russia and Belarus, citing new sanctions requirements.

On the night of November 1, 2025, users received letters with the requirement to provide a valid residence permit in EU/EEA/Switzerlandand then notifications about freezing accounts and upcoming termination of the contract from December 31, 2025.

According to media reports, letters are sent, among other things, to those who opened accounts using visa category D. After account suspension, card payments, deposits, cash withdrawals and transfers within Revolut are not available. “Mediazone” reported at least several cases were also confirmed by Meduza, BBC Russian Service and “Wave”. Citizens of Belarus also reported similar problems, notes “Mirror”.

In a number of cases, clients were unable to quickly download the residence permit: Revolut confirmed technical problems with accepting documents and reported the temporary unavailability of the function (“Waves” message). Previously, letters and notifications mentioned that the restrictions were related to compliance with sanctions laws of the UN, EU, UK and US; official comment from the bank’s press service has been published Here.

What exactly has changed in sanctions

Revolut refers to 19th package of EU sanctionsagreed upon at the end of October. The letters speak of a ban on providing “payment services or electronic money services” to citizens of the Russian Federation/Belarus without a residence permit or citizenship in the EU/EEA/Switzerland countries. Although Deutsche Welle noted that similar measures were not announced en masse by EU banks, The Bell points to paragraph 19 of the resolution EU Councilwhere is the ban on crypto transactions supplemented new regulations on payment services and e-money. This suggests that the tightening is not an internal “interpretation” of Revolut, and other services may adopt similar practices.

Crypto restrictions and Bybit status

On the side of the crypto segment is entrepreneur Andrey Avramenko reportedWhat Bybit EU stopped opening wallets citizens of the Russian Federation. The platform page states that the service is not available to Russian citizens and a number of countries. At the same time, we are talking about European domain: global Bybit did not announce such restrictions on citizenship at the time of publication; a ban was recorded on the serviced territories in Ukraine.

Partial unlockings and what clients should do

By the evening of November 1, some clients reported partial unlocking functions: some operations have become available upon submission of supporting documents about the current status of a residence permit, writes “New newspaper Europe”. According to The Bellone of the clients in Latvia was allowed to pay by card again, but cash withdrawals and transfers remain prohibited for now; in similar cases to other users refused.

Bottom Line: if your account is in Revolut opened on the basis of a residence permit/visa D and you have received a requirement for re-verification, prepare current residence permit documents and upload them to the application at the first technical opportunity. Monitor the status of restrictions and deadlines mentioned by the bank to avoid automatic termination of the contract after December 31, 2025. For crypto services, check the jurisdiction of the platform you are using (EU vs global), current lists of restrictions and terms of service.

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