Retail investment platform Robin Hood It announced on Tuesday that it is offering European customers the ability to transfer cryptocurrencies to and from its app, expanding its product capabilities in the region as it drives international expansion.
The company said in a blog post on Tuesday that it will allow EU customers to deposit and withdraw more than 20 digital currencies through its platform, including bitcoin, ethereum, solana and U.S. dollar coins.
The move effectively allows Robinhood's European users to “self-custody” their assets – meaning, instead of entrusting your cryptocurrency to a third-party platform, you can store ownership of it in a fully owned bank that holds your funds. in wallet.
In December last year, Robinhood launched its cryptocurrency trading service Robinhood Crypto in the EU for the first time. The service allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, but not transfer them from the platform to another third-party platform or to their own self-hosted wallet.
Johann Kerbrat, general manager of Robinhood’s crypto division, told CNBC that he believes the EU has the potential to become an attractive market for digital currencies, thanks to the crypto-friendly regulations adopted by the EU.
“The EU could become a very attractive market next year,” Kobrat said in an interview. He pointed to the EU’s landmark Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which sets out uniform rules for the crypto industry across all 27 EU member states.
Kerbrat said that once MiCA is fully in place, every EU country will be under the same unified system.
“(The EU) is as big as the United States in terms of total addressable market,” he told CNBC, adding, “It's definitely an interesting market for us.”
Robinhood added that for a limited time, the company will offer European customers the ability to deposit 1% of the value of tokens on its platform to get them back in the form of the equivalent amount of cryptocurrency they transferred to Robinhood.
Robinhood is rolling out new features in the European Union as the U.S. cryptocurrency firm feuds with domestic regulators. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission has sued several companies, including Coinbase, Binance and Ripple, saying they were trading unregistered securities.
Each platform disputed the SEC's charge that the tokens marketed and sold on their platforms did not qualify as securities that should be registered with the agency.
“We're disappointed with the way regulation is done in the U.S., which is basically regulation through enforcement,” Cobret told CNBC. “We're not very happy about it.”
Robinhood is regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Federal Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and also holds a BitLicense issued by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
Bitcoin trading
In June, Robinhood announced that it would acquire Luxembourg-based crypto platform Bitstamp to leverage the company’s trading technology and further expand its global reach. The transaction is valued at approximately US$200 million in cash and is expected to close in the first half of 2025.
Kerbrat said the company’s acquisition of Bitstamp will help it enter more international markets and obtain coveted regulatory licenses around the world. Bitstamp has over 50 licenses and registrations worldwide, including in Singapore, the UK and the EU.
Kerbrat told CNBC that in addition to global expansion, the deal with Bitstamp is expected to help Robinhood diversify its crypto business to serve more institutional investors. For example, Bitstamp offers a “crypto-as-a-service” product that helps banks and other financial companies roll out their own encryption capabilities.
Robinhood’s cryptocurrency trading, deposit and withdrawal features are currently only available to EU customers, not the UK. However, it does not currently offer encryption services to UK customers.