The broker app Robinhood, which is very popular in the USA, gained a large number of new users in the wake of the corona pandemic. The GameStop saga also made the company famous. The financial service provider not only benefits from share trading, the trades in crypto currencies have also practically gone through the roof since the beginning of the year.
Robinhood benefits from corona crisis and GameStop saga
• Cryptocurrencies on the uptrend
• Robinhood’s crypto trading is booming
The securities broker Robinhood has been on everyone’s lips since the turmoil surrounding the ailing computer games retailer GameStop. In this context, the trading app not only smeared itself with fame, but also caused a lot of anger on the part of small investors through temporary trading restrictions for the GameStop share. Nevertheless, Robinhood was ultimately able to benefit from the corona crisis and the GameStop affair.
Things are looking up for Bitcoin & crypto.
At an opportune time, the company relied on another growth trend – trading in cryptocurrencies. These have also been on a steady upward trend since the beginning of this year. Above all, the original cyber motto Bitcoin in particular keeps making headlines with new record highs. But the alternative digital currencies, altcoins, are also becoming more and more important and are posting strong price gains. This development has meant that the market capitalization of all cyber currencies is now more than two trillion US dollars. As recently as February, market capitalization had stood at $ 1 trillion.
Growing acceptance in business and finance
The increased interest of business in digital currencies provided a tailwind. Tesla, PayPal and Visa have already decided to accept cyber currency as a means of payment. And asset managers and funds are now also more willing to consider cryptocurrencies as an investment option. The recent IPO of the crypto trading platform Coinbase had recently given Bitcoin and Co. another momentum.
Crypto trades very popular with Robinhood users
Robinhood has also felt the upswing in digital currencies and recorded a record number of users in the first quarter of 2021 who carried out crypto trades via the app. The number in the first three months of this year was 9.5 million users. Compared to the previous quarter, this is an increase of almost 500 percent. So far, Robinhood users have been able to trade various cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum or Dogecoin, to name just a few, free of charge. As Reuters reports, however, it is also planned that customers will be able to withdraw or deposit their cyber currency in order to be able to transfer them to other wallets.
Robinhood plans IPO
Given this strong growth, it is hardly surprising that the financial company has decided to try its luck on the stock market itself. However, it is not yet known when exactly and to what extent the IPO will take place.