Robinhood Doubles Down On Crypto: 41% of Revenue Coming From Crypto Trading
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Robinhood’s Q2 financial results have been published and they show that 41% of the app’s revenue comes from crypto trading. Now, the company is doubling down on crypto.
While Robinhood generated only $5 million in revenue from crypto trading during the entirety of 2020, this number increased to $233 million for the second quarter of 2021.
According to Vlad Tenev, CEO and Co-Founder of Robinhood, a major factor in the increase in crypto trading was the increasing participation of female investors in the market.
It is also noteworthy that 60% of all the funded accounts existing in the platform traded crypto at some point during the second quarter, a reflection of the increasing relevance of cryptocurrency on the global stage.
With Robinhood being especially popular among the younger generations, it is not surprising that the Dogecoin craze had a direct impact on how the quarter developed.
The Shiba Inu-inspired coin accounted for 62% of all the revenue generated by cryptocurrencies during the quarter, which would be equivalent to about $140 million.
Robinhood Will Expand Its Crypto Offering
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev talked in an earnings call about the company’s plans to expand its crypto offering by including the listing of more crypto assets, addition of “interest and rewards” features, and the development of a crypto wallet.
Up until this point, Robinhood users have been unable to have their Dogecoin transferred to an external wallet, despite Dogecoin support having been added to the platform back in 2018.
In fact, a public shareholders questionnaire showed that the most asked question was “Is Robinhood getting a crypto wallet ?”
No specifics were offered in regards to what coins would be added and the timeline for the development of the features.
Tenev referred to the company’s plans to provide a crypto wallet by stating,
“I know there’s been a ton of enthusiasm from the crypto community and the Dogecoin community in particular in getting access to wallets,” adding that integrating a wallet was, “tricky to do at scale.”
It has become apparent that buying and selling cryptocurrencies using the app is not enough for Robinhood’s users, which could result in users migrating to other cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase or Binance to interact with crypto in a more flexible way.
Traditional Finance Platforms Are Racing To Integrate Crypto
Robinhood is not the only finance platform currently working on expanding its crypto services to capitalize on the increasing demand from its users.
Companies like PayPal, Venmo, Skrill, and visa are showing an increasing interest in increasing the integration of crypto to their platforms.
Not only did Paypal add crypto support back in 2020 but it also expanded its services to offer crypto checkout features later in March of 2021, as well as expand its crypto purchase limits back on July 26th.
Venmo, a company owned by PayPal Holdings, also announced the launch of a Crypto auto-buy feature that would allow users to acquire crypto using the existing cashback feature.
Other companies like Visa and MasterCard have also allowed cryptocurrency exchange operators to start using their networks to operate with crypto, launching different crypto-powered debit and credit cards.
More Uses For Crypto Coming
The increasing interest from companies of this size is a reflection of the increasingly relevant role of cryptocurrencies as a payment and investment method, which has created a demand that is still to be supplied by major financial institutions.
When inflation in the major economies hits, there will be a large push into crypto assets, as well as hard goods.
From their current levels, there is little doubt that major tokens will rise higher when compared to fiat currencies. On an absolute basis, cryptos may or may not be able to keep up with rising commodity prices, which are primed to blow out over the coming decade.
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