Cryptocurrency trading has never been easier, thanks to the commission-free stock trading app of microfinance giant Robinhood. Starting February, users of the Robinhood app will be able to buy and sell Bitcoin or Ethereum without any transaction fee.
Cryptocurrency trading was the focus of 2017 and is still going strong in 2018. The cryptocurrency market has become a giant in its own right attracting many investors due to its high profitability. In order to buy or sell crypto coins, you must first register an account at an exchange. An exchange is where cryptocurrency is traded. In most popular exchanges such as Binance, there’s a small transaction fee attached to transactions. Sometimes investing in currencies like Bitcoin who have a very high price becomes useless because the transaction fee makes the overall cost too high.
With Robinhood, transaction charges will be zero. Robinhood will also let its users track the prices and news for a few of the top cryptocurrencies in the world.
“We’re planning to operate this business on a break-even basis and we don’t plan to profit from it for the foreseeable future” says Robinhood co-founder Vlad Tenev. “The value of Robinhood Crypto is in growing our customer base and better serving our existing customers.”
Once trading is operational for Bitcoin and Ethereum, more currencies will eventually follow suit. According to Robinhood, the trading will become available gradually from state to state instead of one big release for everyone. They said in their blog post:
“Trading functionality for BTC and ETH will be released gradually in waves to Robinhood residents in California, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, and New Hampshire. Robinhood Crypto will be available in more states soon.”
Full features and supported coins:
Robinhood will offer instant deposits. This means that money deposited into your account via bank transfers will become instantly available for trading. The trading itself will have no additional costs associated with it. Security is also a top priority for Robinhood and it’s an established platform for the stock trading market thus it’s a secure and trusted platform. The trading feature rolls out in February, however, you can check prices and news etc. of 16 different cryptocurrencies as of right now. Here are all the cryptocurrencies currently supported:
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum
- Bitcoin Cash
- Litecoin
- Ripple
- Ethereum Classic
- Zcash
- Monero
- Dash
- Stellar
- Qtum
- Bitcoin Gold
- OmiseGo
- NEO
- Lisk
- Dogecoin
This is great news for new investors who don’t know much about buying or selling cryptocurrency. Robinhood’s app makes cryptocurrency trading much easier and more user-friendly. Expect to see a rise in demand for some of the most popular cryptocurrencies. Moreover, the app now offers stock trading as well as crypto trading. Therefore, becoming the single go-to place if you want to participate in either of the two markets.
Robinhood will also become a big competitor for Coinbase which is one of the top exchanges in the world. Although Robinhood will not gain anything from this (otherwise there would be a transaction fee), the trading feature will likely bring in a lot of users that will enable Robinhood to expand. Apps can then generate more money with increased traffic so it’s an overall win-win.
There are some questionable exchanges that exist as well. Only recently, BitConnect’s exchange platform was shut down after receiving multiple cease and desist letters for scamming its users. However, Robinhood comes with a decent reputation and has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors. Therefore, it’s a secure and reliable platform for trading your crypto tokens.
With cryptocurrency trading receiving a lot of attention, Robinhood is can make the most out of the situation if things are done right. It will most likely get a large influx of users, therefore, it must be prepared for that. A good customer support system will be required in order to keep the new users otherwise Robinhood’s latest venture may not do as well.