The Defiant

Robinhood’s New Crypto Policy Poised to Bolster DeFi and NFTs

Robinhood, the wildly popular brokerage app, just made a move that could be a shot in the arm for DeFi.  It plans to introduce crypto wallets in 2022 that will enable customers to deposit and withdraw Bitcoin, ETH, and other digital tokens from their accounts to external wallets. Robinhood’s current system doesn’t provide customers with…

By: Owen Fernau Loading...

Robinhood’s New Crypto Policy Poised to Bolster DeFi and NFTs

Robinhood, the wildly popular brokerage app, just made a move that could be a shot in the arm for DeFi.

It plans to introduce crypto wallets in 2022 that will enable customers to deposit and withdraw Bitcoin, ETH, and other digital tokens from their accounts to external wallets. Robinhood’s current system doesn’t provide customers with a lot of mobility for their crypto assets, much to the frustration of its users.

With 21.3M active users and $102B in assets under custody, Robinhood’s new policy could unlock a wave of liquidity, a potential boon for the DeFi ecosystem. That could translate into more action for yield-bearing tokens and other Ethereum-inspired assets, and the purchase of NFTs.

Seven Coins

Robinhood will test the new wallets with select customers in October, the company said on its website. The app will initially accommodate seven coins: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and Litecoin.

Crypto enthusiasts welcomed the news, especially Dogecoin supporters. “Your dogecoin will finally be free,” tweeted an influencer known as the Dogecoin Millionaire. DOGE is up 6.7% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

Not everyone is rejoicing. Robinhood halted trading during the GameStop (GME) short squeeze in January. “Robinhood launching crypto wallets. Going to be fun when they decide that you can’t access those in times of volatility as well as their markets huh? ” said Cold Blooded Shiller, a digital art collector with 92K followers on Twitter.

Robinhood, which derives a big chunk of its revenue from crypto trading, got a big bounce off the announcement — its shares jumped more than 10% on Wednesday.

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