FinTech News
Robinhood Opens Waitlist for Crypto Wallets
At long last, Robinhood is expanding its cryptocurrency platform. According to a blog post from the company, it will begin rolling out its crypto wallet feature to select users next month. Ahead of that, customers can now join the waitlist (although they will need to update their app before doing so). Users can also move up their place in line by inviting friends to join the app.
Until now, while customers could trade select cryptocurrencies, they were unable to transfer their holdings to external wallets. Once the new feature is available, they’ll not only be able to send supported cryptos to other wallets but will also be able to receive them. Robinhood notes that the offering will combine ease-of-use with security, with the company writing on its site, “At Robinhood, we’re designing wallets to be intuitive, with security features such as identity verification, multi-factor authentication, and email and phone verification to keep coins safe from hacks and other threats.”
The ability to hold cryptocurrencies purchased on the Robinhood platform in a wallet has been an overwhelming requested feature ever since the app introduced crypto trading in 2018. Since then, the company’s FAQ has stated that wallets were coming “soon.” Moreover, in a question and answer session ahead of the company’s initial public offering, CEO Vlad Teniv told customers, “We’ve been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to provide our crypto customers with the functionality that they’ve been asking for. We know you want wallets.”
News of Robinhood’s upcoming feature also arrives as the company has been doubling down on crypto in general. Earlier this month, the app announced that customers could now arrange to make recurring investments in selected assets. Meanwhile, the newly-public company’s first earnings revealed that more than half of its transaction-based sales were cryptocurrencies (with the majority of those transactions being attributed to Dogecoin).
While Robinhood’s better-late-than-never addition of crypto wallets is sure to please fans of the app, it likely does little to appease those whose ires were raised by the company in recent months. That said, the FinTech does seem to be putting some of its woes behind them as the stock has stayed relatively steady (and above its opening price) following a disappointing debut and a volatile few sessions afterward. On that note, given how large a part of its business that crypto has become, the rollout of wallets could also please investors. Of course, before customers or observers get too excited, they’ll want to see the finished product — meaning that we’ll have to wait a few more weeks.
