Key Takeaways
- Modern trading apps increasingly combine multiple asset classes under a single roof.
- Robinhood and eToro pioneered the first multi-asset retail venues in the 2010s.
- Today, platforms continue to diversify their offerings.
In 2013, eToro made a revolutionary decision to list Bitcoin on its trading platform, which had previously been exclusively focused on foreign exchange (FX) and contract for difference (CFD) markets.
Twelve years later, eToro and its peers have transformed the way retail investors access different asset classes.
In the age of the trading super app, platforms are pursuing an increasingly seamless user experience and continue to expand their offerings with new products, such as tokenized equities and prediction markets.
The Birth of Retail Trading
In 1990, retail investors typically placed orders over the telephone, and it took days for transactions to settle.
Back then, trading was reserved for professionals. Early electronic order systems were out of reach for the average Joe, as were most derivatives.
As internet access grew, however, brokers like Ameritrade and Schwab started offering their services online.
Meanwhile, digital upstarts like OANDA, the first company to bring FX trading to the mass market, inaugurated a new era of retail participation in previously gated financial activity.
One App, Many Assets
In 2007, Israeli brothers Yoni and Ronen Assia founded RetailFX with a simple vision—to empower retail investors with sophisticated trading strategies.
The platform was initially focused on spot FX markets.
But starting with the introduction of currency CFDs, RetailFX, rebranded as eToro in 2010, expanded its offering to include CFDs on various securities and commodities, then later spot stocks and crypto.
The next major innovation came in 2013, when Robinhood hit the market with a mobile trading app that listed U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Mobile Trading Apps
Robinhood’s mobile-first interface captured the early smartphone boom, transforming the retail trading experience from a desk-based activity to an always-on moneymaker that users found addictive.
While eToro and other platforms launched mobile apps before 2013, Robinhood pioneered the features and design principles that have come to define the product: intuitive orders, frictionless funding, and clean, simple graphics.
With these fundamentals in place, it was easy for Robinhood to branch out into new asset classes without sacrificing the order flow and uncluttered interface that made it popular in the first place.
Since 2013, the app has introduced support for cryptocurrencies, options and futures, fractional shares, and, most recently, prediction markets and stock tokens.
Expanding Retail Horizons
The rise of tokenized stocks has empowered crypto exchanges to offer equity exposure without having to register as a securities broker or exchange.
At the same time, launches that have the right regulatory approvals have started to advance into traditional asset markets.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., event contracts trading has emerged as a rapidly expanding market that closely aligns with the culture and practice of crypto trading.
In 2025, Robinhood and eToro both launched their own stock tokens.
Robinhood also rolled out prediction markets in March, while eToro executives recently confirmed the company is working on its own version of the product.
At the same time, crypto exchanges like Coinbase continue to advance into
Banking and Payment Apps Become Investment Hubs
While eToro and Robinhood were built for trading from the get-go, a new generation of super apps has emerged from the world of banking and payments.
Cash App was among the first to make the leap, launching stock and Bitcoin trading in 2018. But it wasn’t long before PayPal, Venmo, and others jumped on the bandwagon.
Revolut followed a similar trajectory in Europe. After launching in 2015 as an FX-focused digital bank, it introduced equity trading in 2019, then expanded into fractional shares, ETFs, commodities exposure, and crypto.
As with Cash App, trading was embedded inside a full-service banking app, allowing users to move seamlessly between current accounts, cards, savings, and investments.
Other neobanks have also adopted the model. SoFi, originally a student-loan refinancer, has folded stock, ETFs, crypto, and options trading into a single financial hub.
N26 and Monzo have also introduced equity investing capabilities.
What distinguishes neobanks isn’t product breadth, but framing. Investing is positioned as an extension of money management rather than a specialist activity.
Unlike Robinhood or eToro, which attracted users with trading and then expanded their offering, the new school of financial super apps positions it as an additional service on top of payments, savings, and lending.
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James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
