2 years ago
174 Over 1 million people are on the waitlist for Robinhood’s long-awaited cryptocurrency wallet, according to CEO Vlad Tenev. While speaking to Jim Cramer during CNBC’s Disruptor 50 summit on October 21, he said that he was quite ‘proud’ of Robinhood’s progress in cryptocurrency. He also highlighted the company’s recent push to offer a cryptocurrency wallet for its users:
“A lot of people have been asking us for the ability to send and receive cryptocurrencies, transfer them to hardware wallets, transfer them onto the platform to consolidate. And you know, the crypto wallets waitlist is well over a million people now, which is very exciting. We see an opportunity to continue growing that business.”
The Robinhood users have long requested the company to create a cryptocurrency wallet as the platform now does not support any deposits or withdrawals. It only lets users buy cryptocurrency using US dollars and trade digital assets on the platform.
On September 22, Robinhood finally announced its plans to roll out a digital asset wallet and opened up a waitlist for the first access to the new feature. One Robinhood representative told Market Watch in September that the wallet will debut in October for some users and it will eventually open up to all the users in early 2022.
In that event, Tenev insisted on the importance of the emerging cryptocurrency sector, noting that it is “here to stay as an asset class” and it holds particular benefits like being able to connect a global market. He stated:
“So, you know, regardless of where you are in the world whether you’re in the U.S. or overseas, you can have a wallet, you can send people cryptocurrencies from that wallet to their wallet.”
CEO Tenev said that cryptocurrency as an asset class is here to ‘stay’ and revealed that more than one million users have signed up to the company’s cryptocurrency wallet waitlist.
Robinhood first introduced Ether and Bitcoin trading in 2018 for its clients in five US states. The company has since expanded its altcoin support to assets like Litecoin (LTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE). Currently, it allows traders to operate in all except four US states to access its commission-free cryptocurrency trading services.
When the reporters asked Teven if Robinhood would expand support to Shiba Inu (SHIB), the CEO said that it was not possible any time soon. He explained as he cited the company’s strict listing policy.
“We only offer seven coins currently. And I think it goes back to safety first, right. So we’re not generally going to be the first to add any new asset. We want to make sure that it goes through a stringent set of criteria.”
While speaking on the company’s vision, Tenev insisted that Robinhood offers a bigger chance for financial inclusion than its competitors. He asserted that its commission-free trading structure “changed the industry.” He concluded:
“I think that, you look at cryptocurrencies, for instance, people are still paying 3%, 4% fees to access that market. You see a lot of opportunities to serve more customers that have even less money, who are even more underserved than the people we have now.”
