What you actually get: a rail, not an account
This is the most common confusion, and an understandable one. Being issued an IBAN feels like opening a European account. At Xapo Bank, the IBAN and SEPA access are inbound and outbound rails, not a pocket where euros come to rest.
In practice, a euro transfer leaving a French, Belgian or Spanish bank does reach your account. It reaches it in dollars. The conversion is automatic, immediate, and you do not trigger it: it is part of the crediting itself.
If your income is in euros and so is your life, this product makes you eat a conversion on every inbound payment, then a second one when you want euros back. Two conversions to return to your starting point: in that specific case Xapo is not the right tool, and we say so plainly even though an opened account would pay us.
How to find your IBAN, and what it looks like
In the app: Receive, then Euros. The IBAN is displayed and copies in one tap. The BIC is XAPOGIGIXXX, that of Xapo Bank Limited, in Gibraltar. You hand those two items to whoever is paying you, as for any SEPA transfer.
Nothing exotic on the payer's side, then: a client, an employer or a European platform fills in its usual form. The mechanics differ on your side.
Why Gibraltar changes everything here
Gibraltar sits inside the SEPA zone while being outside the European Union since Brexit. That position explains the entire shape of the product.
It gives you the reach of a European account for receiving money, inside an institution that does not fall under EU banking regulation. It is also what allows Xapo to offer Bitcoin custody under a banking licence, which no EU bank will do for you. The trade-off is precisely the absence of a euro account: the institution is licensed in Gibraltar and operates in dollars.
Sending euros: the same mechanism, reversed
You can wire euros to an account in the SEPA zone. The transfer leaves from your dollar balance, which the app converts at the moment you send. The movement mirrors the inbound one, with a conversion on each side.
On the rate, Xapo states it applies the prevailing EUR/USD interbank rate. The point that matters for your decision is not the quoted rate: it is that the conversion is not optional. You cannot hold the funds in euros while you wait for a better moment.
A flaw for some, the whole point for others
The same mechanism reads both ways, and that is where your decision is made.
It is a flaw if you are paid in euros, spend in euros and simply want an account abroad. You will carry a permanent currency risk on money that had no reason to carry one.
It is exactly the point if your goal is to move part of your wealth out of the eurozone. Someone who invoices in euros but wants to save in dollars gets, in a single move, European crediting and dollar holding, paid interest on top. The automatic conversion is then no longer friction endured but the function sought.
That is our own use case, and it is why this account has served us for three years. It would not suit someone whose entire financial life is denominated in euros.
What if you need to keep euros?
Then you need a different product, or a second one. Wise holds genuine multi-currency balances, euros included, and converts when you decide to. Wise is not a bank, however: it is an electronic money institution, with no deposit guarantee and no interest on balances.
The 2% to 4% yield (2 BTC)·The two are not mutually exclusive and complement each other rather well: Wise for what must stay in euros and for running a company, Xapo for the part you want to hold in dollars and in Bitcoin. We work through that trade-off in our Xapo versus Wise comparison.
In short
- IBAN and SEPA: yes. You are reachable by European transfer, BIC XAPOGIGIXXX.
- Euro account: no. The only fiat currency held is the US dollar.
- Automatic conversion both inbound and outbound, at the stated interbank rate, and not optional.
- Good product if you want to receive in euros and hold in dollars. Wrong product if your life is entirely in euros.