Vlad Tenev, CEO and co-founder Robinhood Markets, Inc., is displayed on a screen during his company’s IPO at the Nasdaq Market site in Times Square in New York City, U.S., July 29, 2021.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Robinhood is handing over the keys to some of its customers’ crypto.
The trading and investing company announced Tuesday it will let users hold and custody their own cryptocurrencies and NFTs in a separate, stand-alone app. It’s the latest move in the digital asset space for Robinhood as it reaches for growth beyond stock trading. The company shares are off more than 70% since its IPO.
The new app will put Robinhood squarely in competition with Coinbase and start-ups like MetaMask. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong called his company’s product the most downloaded, mobile self-custody wallet in the U.S. in a tweet Monday.
The app will let users store non-fungible tokens, and connect to NFT marketplaces and “decentralized” stock exchanges. It will also let users earn yield through other platforms and access a “variety” of crypto assets on other exchanges, Robinhood said.
Who holds, or “custodies,” someone’s cryptocurrency has become a contentious question in the industry, fueling the viral phrase “not your keys, not your coins.” Some fear storing assets on an exchange makes them more vulnerable to hacks, or censorship.
Robinhood, which topped last year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list, made its name by offering commission-free stock trading. Its value and user base soared during the pandemic as it ushered in a new generation of traders. The company also became the center of the meme-stock saga after restricting trading in GameStop, the highly shorted name Reddit traders bought in defiance of Wall Street short sellers.
The trading business has slowed significantly over the past year. For the three months ended March 31, Robinhood’s revenue fell 43% from a year ago. Since its public debut in August, shares have plummeted more than 70% and are more than 88% off of the all-time high.
In an effort to spur revenue and user growth, Robinhood has been adding more cryptocurrency products and features, and in late March it added extended stock trading hours. It launched an earlier version crypto of wallets to customers in April, which will still be available within the core Robinhood app.
“We believe that crypto is more than just an asset class,” Vlad Tenev, Robinhood’s co-founder and CEO said in a press release. “By offering the same low cost and great design that people have come to expect from Robinhood, our web3 wallet will make it easier for everyone to hold their own keys and experience all the opportunities that the open financial system has to offer.”
Robinhood said the new wallet will roll out with a waitlist first and will be available internationally.
The new app notably won’t charge network fees, despite Ethereum and bitcoin fees running at $70 in some cases. A Robinhood spokesperson said the crypto product will rely on third-party liquidity providers “competing” for customers’ transactions behind the scenes, in order to offset those network fees.
Robinhood makes most of its revenue off of transaction fees in its core trading business, through a brokerage-industry practice called payment for order flow.
— CNBC’s Jesse Pound contributed reporting.
