Are Bitcoin merchants supported by Revolut?

My purchase today at a UK vendor named Bittylicious was declined by Revolut with a “Merchant is not supported” error.

From what I can see, Bittylicious appears to be registered with the UK registrar of companies. The firm has a real address. Its people answer email promptly. It requires its customers to do a KYC. In other words, it appears to be a legitimate business entity.

I am therefore curious: on what authority did Revolut decline to honor their transactions?

Is this based on the MCC (Merchant Category Code)?

Bittylicious is not a financial security broker/dealer (as cryptocurrencies aren’t considered as such) but we do have an MCC of 6211 as is normal in the cryptocurrency world.

If this is the case anyway, may I ask why you have these restrictions? Most cards don’t.

@capital: The UK Registrar of Companies lists Bittylicious as being in the business of “Other information technology service activities” ([link] (https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08540541)). The UK’s regulators therefore do not consider the firm to be a financial intermediary. What then is the basis of Revolut’s claim that firm belongs to a class of institutions that they will not service?

There seems to be an important issue here; one that is being brought to the fore by the refusals of the UK’s banks to serve specific classes of users and businesses.

This is that in a increasingly cashless society, the ability for lawful parties to transact electronically among themselves becomes close to a fundamental right. Otherwise, the powerful will gain the ability to silence “inconvenient” people, by turning them into economic non-entities.

Returning to this specific case, I am curious to know: why has Revolut chosen to classify this particular firm as a “financial intermediary”, when the relevant UK regulator had not done so?