Robinhood Rolls Out Wallet App Worldwide for IOS

Online brokerage firm Robinhood rolled out its crypto wallet app worldwide for IOS users on Wednesday. 

The app will support both the Ethereum network and its Layer 2 scaling solution, Polygon – but not Bitcoin. 

Robinhood’s Web3 Wallet

Per a blog post from Robinhood, the firm’s wallet app has now rolled out to a waitlist of over 1 million users, and has been downloaded in over 130 countries. 

For a limited time, users of the app can be rewarded with 1 USDC if they deposit $10 worth of crypto to it from an external wallet or exchange, or earn 5 USDC if they withdraw an equal amount from Robinhood’s own exchange. 

The wallet lets users hold and swap cryptocurrencies without network fees – which have been known to reach exorbitant levels in times of peak demand. It can also connect to a “wide range of decentralised applications,” and interact with NFTs. 

“The feedback we’ve received for Robinhood Wallet since first launching in beta has been extremely positive,” said Johann Kerbrat, GM of Robinhood Crypto. “Users have told us they love how accessible and easy to use the app is, and that they really enjoy the ability to self-custody their digital assets and swap with no network fees on Polygon.”

Kerbat said that high demand for interacting with other chains and assets motivated the team to quickly implement Ethereum into their wallet. Ethereum is the long-standing king of the DeFi and NFT economies, hosting over 50% of DeFi TVL, according to DefiLlama. 

The wallet is self-custodial, meaning users remain in control of their private keys and therefore own their own crypto. Those cryptos include ETH, MATIC, and SOL, and over 50 ERC tokens like SHIB and USDC.

Demand for self-custodial wallets and Defi surged after the collapse of FTX, in which its founders are widely suspected to have misappropriated customer funds for personal gain. 

Robinhood plans to introduce more coins and expand its in-app rewards program in the coming months, and to bring its wallet to Android users later this year. 

Robinhood VS Regulators

Robinhood is now being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over some of the tokens listed on its crypto exchange. Since FTX’s fallout, the agency has been cracking down on a slew of crypto firms – including Kraken and Paxos – alleging that some of their products are unregistered securities. 

Robinhood was tied to FTX’s former boss, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), who owned over $450 million worth of shares in the brokerage firm. Authorities have now gained permission to seize those holdings from SBF, as the funds are suspected to be linked to wire fraud and money laundering. 

The article was first published on: Mar 1, 2023