Yo! I’m excited to announce that Strike is now available in the UK, offering individuals and businesses access to our suite of bitcoin and Lightning services. Today, we're rolling out buy bitcoin with free, instant, and unlimited deposits, sell, send, and withdraw bitcoin, global payments, bitcoin and Lightning wallet features like free on-chain withdrawals, and much more.

To get started, download the app in your iOS or Android app store, or if you’re a business you can apply for an account.

As of today, Strike is available in 100 countries and territories across the globe, including the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Africa.

The Story

One of the reasons I founded Strike is because I believed that the world needed a global bitcoin company. A bitcoin-focused financial institution dedicated to serving the best of bitcoin to everyone in the world.

Bitcoin is hope for a brighter future. Its technological innovation solves some of the biggest economic problems we all face today, from global debt, inflation, and currency debasement, to financial inequality. At Strike, we believe in the transformative power of this technology––open, global, and public digital infrastructure for money––and we’re committed to making Bitcoin accessible and available to everyone on the planet.

To make this vision a reality, we’ve been on a global quest to expand our services. Following our recent launch in Europe last month, we are excited to introduce Strike to customers in the UK. Strike is now available in 100 countries and territories across the globe, including the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Africa.

With a population of 67 million, the UK is the second largest economy in Europe and sixth largest globally and presents significant opportunities for Bitcoin adoption. While some Bitcoin companies have retreated from the UK, we are expanding our presence, doubling down on our commitment to further Bitcoin adoption globally, and driving financial innovation and inclusion forward in the UK. We’re excited to introduce our services in the UK, featuring a beautifully-designed Bitcoin app that delivers all of Strike's features while complying with local regulations for bitcoin and “cryptocurrency” companies.

We can already feel the support from the community.

Introducing Strike UK

We’re excited to bring our core bitcoin and Lightning wallet features to the UK. Here’s an overview of all that Strike has to offer and how you can get started.

Getting started

Signing up for a Strike account is simple and involves just three steps: creating an account, providing your details including investor classification, and passing a knowledge test known as an Appropriateness Assessment required by UK regulation to make sure you understand Strike and bitcoin (safety first!). After passing the test, you must wait for a 24-hour “cooling-off” period before you can begin using the Strike app.

Strike Learn, our resource hub, offers educational materials to support you on your journey and help you learn more about Strike, bitcoin, and potential risks. To comply with local rules in the UK, our UK customers will also notice the customary risk warnings in the Strike App and on our website when viewed by UK visitors.

To get started, download the Strike app via the iOS App Store or Google Play Store. Then, open the app and tap the “Sign up” button.

The Best Way to Bitcoin

Buy bitcoin with free, unlimited, and instant deposits

Buy bitcoin directly with free, unlimited deposits of pounds via faster payments from your UK bank account. Effortlessly transfer money from your UK bank to your Strike account and get instant access to your funds if supported by your bank. Learn more about how to add a bank account.

You can also automatically convert your deposit to bitcoin. Simply enable the “auto-buy bitcoin” setting when you deposit funds into Strike to have future deposits automatically converted to bitcoin. Learn more about cash deposits and auto-buy.

Sell, send, and withdraw bitcoin with ease

Sell your bitcoin and withdraw pounds directly to your UK bank account just as easily. We automatically save your bank account details as a payment method to simplify future cash withdrawals. Learn more about how to withdraw cash.

You can also withdraw your bitcoin to self-custody or send it to any Bitcoin or Lightning wallet instantly and without limits.

Schedule recurring purchases

Buy bitcoin on your own schedule with recurring purchases.

Stack sats hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly––the choice is yours. Set your desired frequency and the cash amount you want to buy and we’ll handle the rest––just make sure you have sufficient balance in your cash account. Learn more about recurring purchases and how to set them up.

Alternatively, you can make recurring bitcoin buys directly from your bank account––and make regular bitcoin purchases without having fiat balance on Strike!

Simply enable the “auto-buy bitcoin” setting when you deposit funds into Strike to have all future deposits from your bank account automatically converted to bitcoin (you can turn this on or off anytime). Set up a recurring deposit or “standing order” from your bank account to your Strike account and have the funds automatically converted into bitcoin each time. Learn more about cash deposits and auto-buy.

P2P Strike Users

Send and receive cash value to and from any Strike user around the world instantly.

Strike’s global P2P transfers with Lightning allow you to send from your GBP balance to a friend’s Strike account instantly anywhere Strike is available, and they can receive the value as Bitcoin, GBP (in the UK), Euro (in Europe), USD (in the U.S.), or USDT (in supported global regions) in their Strike wallet, using bitcoin and the Lightning Network as an open and global payment rail under the hood. Learn more.

This feature becomes increasingly exciting as we keep expanding globally, adding more on and off ramps, and enhancing our wallet features.

Additionally, you can also send cash value to Bitcoin or Lightning wallets, or to foreign currency accounts in select countries. Learn more about these features below.

Send Money Globally

Send Globally enables customers to make fast, low-cost local currency payouts in eligible countries using the Lightning Network as an open and global payment rail under the hood.

With Send Globally, you can turn your GBP into foreign currency in an instant. Send money across borders to supported regions including Africa (Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo), Philippines, Mexico, Vietnam, and Guatemala. Learn more

The Best of Bitcoin and Lightning

Strike offers all the best Bitcoin and Lightning wallet features in one app. We support free on-chain withdrawals, Lightning Address payments, and zero-value invoices.

Free On-Chain Withdrawals

Buy bitcoin on Strike and send it on-chain for free to your own wallet or cold-storage.

Strike offers free on-chain withdrawals to help you navigate the mempool and surges in on-chain fees. Our on-chain Bitcoin payments are designed to support Bitcoin being used at scale. When sending an on-chain payment, Strike allows you to select the delivery time of the payment and offers free bitcoin withdrawals for flexible transactions.

• Priority — Targeting the next block, fees apply
• Standard — Targeting confirmation in about an hour, lower fees than priority
• Flexible — Targeting confirmation in around 24 hours, free of charge!

If you’re simply buying bitcoin and withdrawing to cold storage, feel free to select the flexible option so you can save more of your sats.

Send and receive payments with your Lightning Address

All Strike users have a Lightning Address that allows them to receive payments from all over the world. Your Strike Lightning Address is simply your username@strike.me. It’s designed to look and feel like an email address but it has the ability to receive global payments.

Tap your profile to view and share your Lightning Address. You can also select whether you want to receive incoming payments in GBP or bitcoin, based on your preference. If you select GBP then any incoming Lighting payments in bitcoin will be automatically converted for you by Strike and credited to your GBP balance.

Similarly, Strike users can pay a Lightning Address on Strike and have the option to send sats from their GBP balance or their bitcoin balance. A truly dynamic experience that leverages an open, global, fast, and cheap payment protocol native to the internet.

Send and receive payments using zero-value Lightning invoices

Pay zero-value Lightning invoices and send any amount from your GBP or bitcoin balance to other wallets.

You can also issue zero-value Lightning invoices and receive any amount of bitcoin to either your bitcoin or GBP balances from other wallets. When receiving as your GBP balance, Strike automatically converts bitcoin to GBP upon receipt.

Strike Private

Strike Private is our white glove service for high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and corporations looking to buy and sell larger amounts of bitcoin (over £100k).

With Strike Private, eligible clients get access to our leading Bitcoin infrastructure with no purchase limits, tailored custom pricing, and our team of Bitcoin experts. We partner with these clients on buying and selling bitcoin, Bitcoin education, Lightning Network overviews, guidance on self-custody, market analysis, and more.

If you’re interested in partnering with us on your Bitcoin journey contact us at private@strike.me or learn more.

Strike for Business

We are now accepting applications from businesses in the UK looking for support on all their bitcoin needs! If you have a business entity and would like to open a Strike account, you can learn more and get in touch here: https://strike.me/business/

Our business customers will have access to all the same services as our individual customers - buy bitcoin, sell bitcoin, deposit or withdraw from your GBP balance using bank transfers, and more.

In addition certain eligible customers will have access to the Strike API allowing them to automate transactions on their Strike Account. Contact us at partners@strike.me for more details.

Thanks

Thank you to our customers for your continued support and interest in Strike. We couldn’t be more excited to continue our global journey in the UK. Our work is far from done. We will continue to expand to more countries, support more currencies, and add more features.

In the meantime, here is a recap of some of the features that are now available in the UK, with more to come:

• Buy bitcoin directly with free unlimited deposits from your bank account, including recurring purchases for DCA, and auto-buy functionality
• Sell your bitcoin and withdraw the funds directly to your bank account
• Withdraw your bitcoin to self-custody or send it to any Bitcoin or Lightning wallet instantly and without limits (including free on-chain sends using our Flexible tier)
• Strike’s global P2P transfers with Lightning allow you to send from your GBP balance to a friend’s Strike account instantly anywhere Strike is available, and they can receive the value as Bitcoin, GBP (in the UK), Euro (in Europe), USD (in the U.S.), or USDT (in supported global regions) in their Strike wallet
• Use Send Globally, our cross-border payments feature, to send value across borders to supported regions
• Strike offers all the best Bitcoin and Lightning wallet features in one app. We support free on-chain withdrawals, Lightning Address payments, and zero-value invoices
• Strike Private for our high-net worth customers that want to buy or sell larger amounts of bitcoin (over £100k)
• Business accounts allowing UK businesses to buy, sell, send, receive, or accept bitcoin

Please continue to share feedback, ask questions, and reach out to us. We love hearing from you and learning more about your experience and how we can make Strike the best it can be.

Until then. Much love.

Jack

This financial promotion has been approved by Englebert Ltd on 24/06/2024.