Retail investment platform Robinhood announced Tuesday that it is offering customers in Europe the ability to transfer cryptocurrencies in and out of its app, expanding its product capabilities in the region as it moves forward with international expansion.
In a blog post on Tuesday, the company said it will allow customers in the European Union to deposit and withdraw more than 20 digital currencies through its platform, including bitcoin, ethereum, solana and USD coins.
The move effectively gives European Robinhood users the ability to “self-custody” assets, meaning that instead of entrusting your cryptocurrency to a third-party platform, you can take possession of it in a proprietary wallet that contains your funds.
In December last year, Robinhood launched its cryptocurrency trading service, Robinhood Crypto, in the EU for the first time. The service allowed users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, but not take them off the platform, either to another third-party platform or to their own self-custody wallet.
Johann Kerbrat, CEO of Robinhood's cryptocurrency unit, told CNBC that he believes the EU has the potential to become an attractive market for digital currencies, thanks to the cryptocurrency-friendly regulations the bloc is adopting.
“The EU can become a very attractive market next year,” Kerbrat said in an interview. He pointed to the EU's landmark Crypto Asset Markets (MiCA) regulation, which establishes harmonized rules for the cryptocurrency sector across the bloc's 27 member states.
Once MiCA is fully implemented, Kerbrat said, all EU countries will be under the same unified regime.
“In terms of total addressable market, [the EU] “It's as big as the United States,” he told CNBC, adding that “it's definitely an interesting market for us.”
Robinhood added that, for a limited time, the company will offer European customers the ability to recover 1% of the value of tokens deposited on its platform in the form of the equivalent cryptocurrency they transfer to Robinhood.
Robinhood is rolling out new features in the EU at a time when US crypto companies clash with national regulators. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission has sued several companies, including Coinbase, Binance and Ripple, for claiming that they all trade in unregistered securities.
Each of the platforms has disputed the SEC's allegations, stipulating that tokens traded and sold on their platforms do not qualify as securities that must be registered with the agency.
“We're disappointed in the way regulation is being done in the United States, where it's basically regulation by enforcement,” Kerbret told CNBC. “We're not very happy to see that.”
Robinhood is regulated by the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) at the federal level in the US. It also holds a BitLicense with the New York State Department of Financial Services.
Bitmark agreement
In June, Robinhood announced it would acquire Luxembourg-based crypto platform Bitstamp to leverage the company's exchange technology and further expand its global reach. The deal, valued at approximately $200 million in cash, will close in the first half of 2025.
Kerbrat said the company's agreement to buy Bitstamp would help it gain access to even more international markets and obtain coveted regulatory permissions around the world. Bitstamp holds over 50 licenses and registrations around the world, including Singapore, the UK, and the EU.
Beyond expanding globally, the deal with Bitstamp is also expected to help Robinhood diversify its cryptocurrency business to serve more institutional investors, Kerbrat told CNBC. For example, Bitstamp offers a “crypto-as-a-service” offering that helps banks and other financial companies launch their own crypto capabilities.
Robinhood's cryptocurrency trading, deposit, and withdrawal functionality is currently only available to customers in the European Union, not the United Kingdom. The company launched its popular share trading service for Brits in November last year. However, it is currently not yet offering crypto services to UK customers.