Robinhood launches crypto transfers in Europe as it pushes overseas expansion

Retail investing level Robinhood connected Tuesday announced that it's offering customers successful Europe the quality to transportation cryptocurrencies successful and retired of its app, broadening its merchandise capabilities successful the portion arsenic it presses up with planetary expansion.

In a blog station connected Tuesday, the institution said that it'll let customers successful the European Union to deposit and retreat much than 20 integer currencies done its platform, including bitcoin, ethereum, solana, and USD coin.

The determination efficaciously gives Robinhood's European users the quality to "self-custody" assets — meaning that, alternatively than entrusting your cryptocurrency to a third-party platform, you tin alternatively instrumentality ownership of it successful a afloat owned wallet that holds your funds.

In December past year, Robinhood launched its crypto trading service, Robinhood Crypto, successful the EU for the archetypal time. The work allowed users to bargain and merchantability cryptocurrencies, but not to determination them distant from the platform, either to different third-party level oregon to their ain self-custodial wallet.

Johann Kerbrat, wide manager of Robinhood's crypto unit, told CNBC that helium thinks the EU has the imaginable to go an charismatic marketplace for integer currencies, acknowledgment to crypto-friendly regulations being adopted by the bloc.

"The EU tin go a precise charismatic marketplace adjacent year," Kerbrat said successful an interview. He pointed to the EU's landmark Markets successful Crypto-Assets (MiCA), regulation, which sets retired harmonized rules for the crypto assemblage crossed each 27 of the bloc's subordinate states.

Once MiCA is afloat successful place, Kerbrat said, each EU state volition autumn nether the aforesaid unified regime.

"In presumption of full addressable market, [the EU] is arsenic large arsenic the U.S.," helium told CNBC, adding, "it's decidedly an absorbing marketplace for us."

Robinhood added that, for a constricted time, the institution volition connection European customers the quality to get 1% of the worth of tokens deposited connected its level backmost successful the signifier of the equivalent cryptocurrency they transportation into Robinhood.

Robinhood is rolling retired caller features successful the EU astatine a clip erstwhile U.S. crypto firms are sparring with regulators astatine home. In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission has sued respective companies including Coinbase, Binance and Ripple implicit claims that they're each dealing successful unregistered securities.

Each of the platforms has contested the SEC's allegations, stipulating that tokens marketed and sold connected their platforms don't prime arsenic securities that should beryllium registered with the agency.

"We are disappointed by the mode U.S. regularisation is happening, wherever it's fundamentally regularisation by enforcement," Kerbret told CNBC. "We are not ace blessed to spot that."

Robinhood is regulated by the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) astatine a national level successful the U.S. It besides holds a BitLicense with New York State Department of Financial Services.

In June, Robinhood announced that it would get Luxembourg-based crypto level Bitstamp to instrumentality vantage of the firm's speech exertion and further grow its scope globally. The deal, which is valued astatine astir $200 cardinal successful cash, is acceptable to adjacent successful the archetypal fractional of 2025.

Kerbrat said that the company's woody to bargain Bitstamp would assistance it summation entree to adjacent much planetary markets and get coveted regulatory permissions astir the world. Bitstamp holds implicit 50 licenses and registrations globally including successful Singapore, the U.K. and the EU.

Beyond expanding globally, the woody with Bitstamp is besides expected to assistance Robinhood diversify its crypto concern to service much organization investors, Kerbrat told CNBC. For example, Bitstamp offers a "crypto-as-a-service" offering which helps banks and different fiscal firms motorboat their ain crypto capabilities.

Robinhood's crypto trading, deposit and withdrawal functionality are presently lone disposable to customers successful the European Union, not successful the U.K. The institution launched its fashionable banal trading work to Brits successful November past year. However, it does not yet presently connection crypto services to U.K. clients.