Robinhood Markets on Thursday launched a new commission-free crypto-trading app for customers in the European Union as it makes a renewed push to expand its business outside the U.S.
The launch in the E.U. comes just a week after the California company outlined plans to launch a new, commission-free stock-trading app in the U.K.
Shares in Robinhood Markets
HOOD,
were up 7% on Wednesday after having risen 18% over the previous 12 months.
Robinhood’s new app will let customers in the EU trade at least 25 different cryptocurrencies, including coins that have been delisted from Robinhood’s U.S. app.
Robinhood delisted Solana, Polygon and Cardano from its platforms in June after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed lawsuits against Coinbase
COIN,
and Binance for failing to register the cryptocurrencies as securities.
The delistings mean customers in the U.S. are now able to trade just 15 different cryptocurrencies on Robinhood’s platforms, including bitcoin, Dogecoin and Ethereum, compared with the more than 25 that will be available to customers in the EU.
Robinhood’s EU crypto app launch comes amid a recent crypto market rally that has seen the price of bitcoin
BTCUSD,
surge by 149% over the previous 12 months to highs of more than $43,000.
See: Bullish bets on bitcoin topping $50,000 surge as rally heats up
In November, Robinhood reported a surge in crypto trading on its platforms that saw users buy and sell $2.3 billion in cryptocurrency in October, marking a 92% increase from the previous month.
First launched in 2013, Robinhood became a household name at the start of the pandemic as retail investors flocked to its share-trading platforms amid the 2020 stock-market crash.
The commission-free trading company subsequently played a central role in the meme-stock phenomenon before it shut down trading of GameStop shares
GME,
during a short squeeze in January 2021.
From the archives (April 2021): Lawsuits against Robinhood in the GameStop saga are getting their day in court — but there’s one big snag:
Also see (July 2021): Robinhood IPO: 5 things (and a bonus) to know as trading app raises $2 billion
In its most recent quarterly results, Robinhood posted a 29% uptick in revenue to $467 million, reducing its net loss by 55% to $85 million.
Read on: Jamie Dimon says crypto-funded terrorism and crime demonstrate a need to ban cryptocurrencies
