Robinhood is Starting to Offer Crypto Wallets

The test period begins in October

The electronic exchange trading platform Robinhood, co-founded by Bulgarian Vladislav Tenev, is starting to offer crypto wallets. This will allow users of the service to pay directly with cryptocurrencies, since until now they could only trade with them. This solution will put it in direct competition with the few other platforms offering decentralized currency portfolios such as Coinbase. The initial test period of the portfolios, which will be held with a limited group of users, will begin in October, and according to the company's website, more than 300,000 people have signed up to participate, the Financial Times reported.

The news of the change in Robinhood's model raised the company's shares by 11%, valuing it at $ 40 billion. It currently controls $ 22.7 billion in decentralized currencies, up 29 times from last year. The company announced the news in a rather curious way - Vladislav Tenev's face was mounted on that of the character George Constanza from the comedy series Seinfeld, and the scene used was of Tenev taking a leather wallet out of his pocket and showing it to the camera.

Digital currency trading generated $ 233 million in revenue for the company in the second quarter of 2021, up from just $ 5 million a year earlier. Sixty percent of active users exchanged cryptocurrencies in the second quarter of the year, with 62% of the proceeds from this trade coming from dogecoin exchanges. The currency was invented as a joke, but gained much notoriety after Tesla founder Elon Musk promoted it in several Twitter posts.

In a recent presentation to investors, Robinhood said cryptocurrency trading would be an important part of its international expansion. The broker also plans to...