“We created a waitlist for our wallets. Many individuals have asked for the ability to transmit and receive cryptocurrencies, move them to hardware wallets, and consolidate them on the platform, and the crypo wallets queue currently numbers well more than a million people.”
Robinhood revealed last month that it was piloting a cryptocurrency wallet functionality. The wallet will enable investors to trade, send, and receive digital currencies, as well as transfer them in and out of the Robinhood app. Robinhood now accepts seven different digital currencies, including bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin.
“You can have a wallet and transfer bitcoins to others from that wallet,” Tenev said. “There are certain benefits in the technology that make it sort of global and available by default, which makes it really fascinating.”
The start-up first offered cryptocurrency trading three years ago, but it has since grown in importance to the company’s bottom line. Last quarter, bitcoin trading accounted for more than half of Robinhood’s transaction-based income. This is an increase from only 3% a year ago. Clients will be able to combine their digital currencies into a single account using the new wallets. After then, clients may trade, transfer, and receive bitcoins to and from other wallet addresses.
This functionality is already available on competitors Coinbase and Gemini. Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $66,900 on Wednesday, as investors grow increasingly interested in digital assets. JPMorgan stated on Thursday that the price of bitcoin is increasing because investors view it as a stronger inflation hedge than gold. Other investors credited the historic high to the debut on Tuesday of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which follows bitcoin futures contracts tied to the cryptocurrency’s future price.
“Crypto is definitely here to remain as an asset class, and I believe the simplicity of usage and global aspect of it has made it appealing to a lot of people,” Tenev said.
Robinhood will release its quarterly earnings after the bell on Tuesday. The firm cautioned investors that trading volume was decreasing in the third quarter, which may have an impact on its bottom line.