Justin Sullivan
Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD) is launching commission-free crypto trading in the European Union, the company said on Thursday, a week after it announced plans to bring its stock trading app to the U.K. early next year.
The trading app is available to eligible customers in the EU and offers cashback-like rewards that pay customers a percentage of their trading volume every month in bitcoin (BTC-USD). In addition, users can earn for a limited time more bitcoin when they refer friends to the app.
It allows users to buy and sell more than 55 cryptocurrencies. Robinhood (HOOD) says it’s the lowest cost crypto trading platform in the EU, on average. Support for additional tokens, crypto transfers, crypto staking, and crypto learning rewards are expected to debut in 2024.
“We believe crypto is the financial framework for tomorrow and that it plays a significant role in our mission to democratize finance for all,” said Johann Kerbat, general manager of Robinhood Crypto. “The EU has developed one of the world’s most comprehensive policies for crypto asset regulation, which is why we chose the region to anchor Robinhood Crypto’s international expansion plans.”
The company said it will display the spread, which also includes the rebate that Robinhood (HOOD) receives from sell and trade orders in the app, in its effort to be transparent on fees.
Robinhood said the crypto app won’t commingle customer coins with business funds other than operating purposes, such as payment of network fees. It also offers 24/7 email customer support and stores customers’ coins in cold storage, entirely disconnected from the internet.
In addition, the company’s security team routinely reviews the code and infrastructure powering the app and uses third-party experts to test its systems. It also carries crime insurance to protect a portion of assets held across storage systems against losses from theft, including cybersecurity breaches.
In advance of the crypto-trading app introduction that offers bitcoin-back rewards, Robinhood (HOOD) stocked up on bitcoin (BTC-USD). In August, it was identified as the third-largest bitcoin (BTC-USD) holder after Binance and Bitfinex.
Robinhood (HOOD) stock slipped 0.2% in Thursday premarket trading as bitcoin (BTC-USD) fell 2.4%.
