Robinhood's long-awaited international expansion is in full swing. Consumer trading and investment app tailored to younger generations launches its crypto application To all eligible users in the European Union, the company saying Thursday.
The announcement comes immediately after its foray into the UK Just a week ago. While it brings cryptocurrency trading to EU clients, it only offers its brokerage service in the UK for now.
The EU has been at the forefront of formulating regulations to enforce cryptocurrency traceability to combat money laundering and protect retailers from market volatility. Among the most important frameworks is the Cryptoasset (MiCA) markets dominatewhich focuses on the regulation of stablecoins and is considered one of the most comprehensive regimes in the world for crypto assets.
"The EU has developed one of the world's most comprehensive policies for regulating crypto assets, which is why we chose the region to anchor Robinhood Crypto's international expansion plans," said Johann Kerbrat, general manager of Robinhood Crypto, in a release.
In addition to boasting low fees, Robinhood claims that it is the only custodial crypto platform (where customer funds are in the custody of the exchange rather than their self-hosted wallets) that will recover a percentage of its trading volume each month, paid in Bitcoin. EU users can buy and sell around 25 cryptocurrencies, including major ones like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Robinhood is taking other steps to assure European users that they are getting their money's worth, given that its past trading practices have not been ideal. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission has criticized the stock trading app for misleading users about how it makes money and failing to deliver on its promise of best-in-class trade execution. term paying 65 million dollars to resolve these SEC charges.
In its crypto effort in the EU, Robinhood promises transparency by displaying the trading spread, which includes the cashback it receives from sell and trade orders in the app.
It also guarantees that it will never mix customer coins with trading funds other than for operational purposes, such as paying network fees. In the wake of the FTX collapse, users are increasingly distrustful of centralized custody crypto platforms and the shift to decentralized alternatives.
Robinhood itself has been nervous about its crypto operations. In June, he voluntarily moved to limit trading and holding of certain tokens for its American customers, at a time when the government was taking a stronger stance against trading giants like Binance and Coinbase.
The Robinhood Crypto app, available on iOS and Android As of today, it is restricted to European citizens over 18 years of age. The platform plans to list more tokens and add new features such as crypto transfers, staking, and learning rewards in 2024.
