Robinhood Aims to Disrupt Further by Launching a Cryptocurrency Wallet
Users will not be able to deposit funds from or withdraw funds to their personal bitcoin wallets.
If established cryptocurrency exchanges didn’t take notice when commission-free trading app Robinhood started offering free cryptocurrency trading earlier in the year, they are likely to now.
According to a job advert which appeared on the website of recruitment consultants, Greenhouse, Robinhood is reportedly working on a cryptocurrency wallet of its own. This would allow Robinhood’s customers to move their crypto assets from other wallets and brokerages into the platform without having to sell them first.
At the moment for customers of the commission-free investing app to transfer their cryptocurrencies in and out of Robinhood they are required to sell them, move the money to the desired platform and then purchase the cryptocurrencies of their choice.
New Features, New Threats to Establishment
According to the job ad which was first spotted by Business Insider the commission-free investing app is seeking a ‘Crypto Engineer’ who will be responsible for, among other things, adding new features to the company’s crypto product.
“As a Crypto Engineer you’ll: Build out new functionality for our crypto product, such as adding new currencies or providing wallet functionality…” reads the job advertisement.
To be considered applicants are required to possess at least one year of experience in crypto or blockchain development as well as prior experience with distributed services.
According to a spokesperson for Robinhood which currently enjoys a valuation of $5.6 billion customers of the firm have been constantly asking for a way of moving cryptocurrencies into the app from other services. Besides the ability to move cryptocurrencies around, having its own cryptocurrency wallet could also provide customers of Robinhood with a more secure way of storing their digital assets.
From Traditional Investments to Crypto
While it was founded five years ago Robinhood initially focused on investors interested in U.S. stocks, options and exchange-traded funds. It is only at the beginning of this year that commission-free cryptocurrency trading was introduced. Initially, Robinhood Crypto was rolled out to New Hampshire, Montana, Missouri, Massachusetts and California. Later the list was expanded to include Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin and Texas, with the latter being the most recent addition.
From the onset, the platform only allowed the trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum though features such as creating custom alerts, access to cryptocurrency news and market data were available for 16 of the world’s major cryptocurrencies.
In a Series D fundraising round last month the fintech firm raised approximately $363 million providing the firm adequate financial muscle to take on established crypto rivals by expanding its commission-free business model to more states.
