Robinhood, a Menlo Park, California-based stock brokerage firm that allows users to trade US listed stocks, exchange-traded-funds (ETFs), and cryptocurrencies while paying zero commissions, has received a BitLicense and a money transmitter license in January 2019.
Robinhood’s Crypto Services Accessible To New Yorkers
On May 23, 2019, Robinhood’s management revealed that New York residents may purchase cryptoassets through the trading platform’s app. Currently, Robinhood app users can buy seven different digital assets including bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), bitcoin SV (BSV), ether (ETH), ethereum classic (ETC), litecoin (LTC), and dogecoin (DOGE).
Additionally, users can track the price movements of these cryptoassets and 10 other major cryptos. According to Robinhood’s official website, the company’s digital asset trading services are currently available in 39 U.S. states.
Robinhood Makes Its First Major Acquisition
In late March 2019, Robinhood’s management introduced a “digestible” financial newsletter after making its first major acquisition. As explained in the announcement, Robinhood acquired MarketSnacks, a “top rated” financial news media outlet and podcast.
Robinhood’s management has also rebranded the newsletter to “Robinhood Snacks,” and it has reportedly decided to focus on providing the stock trading app’s millennial audience the latest financial news in a humorous way.
Commenting on the firm’s acquisition (at that time), Josh Elman, the VP of Product at Robinhood, wrote (in a blog post):
We improved market news coverage on our platform, added discovery tools on mobile, and revamped our Help Center to better answer your questions. Robinhood Snacks is a major step towards building out these resources and helping you get more informed on market news.
Protecting Traders From Crypto Market’s Volatility
Launched in February 2018, Robinhood’s crypto trading app is available for both Android and iPhone users. As noted on the company’s website, the Robinhood app has been designed to “protect [users’] market orders against price moves.” This is done by “adjusting market orders to limit orders collared up to 1% of buys, and 5% for sells.”
As explained by Robinhood’s management, collars are calculated, or determined, based on the “last trade price.” This means that an order will not be processed if the market price of the cryptoasset (being traded) “moves more than 5% lower than its price” at the time the user placed a sell order. Or, “more than 1% higher” than the crypto’s price when the user “first placed a market buy order, until it comes back within the collar.”
