Since the US trading brokerage announced that it would be opening its doors to cryptocurrencies over a million new users have signed up for early access to its trading app. Robinhood is wildly popular with millennials and the average age of its users is 26. Social media went wild with anticipation of the new zero fee crypto trading service however it could be a long wait for those waiting to trade.
A CNBC report claims that over a million new users have subscribed to the waiting list for Robinhood’s new crypto trading service. Just four days ago the firm announced that it would be rolling out commission free trading for 16 of the most popular cryptocurrencies starting in February.
Overwhelming response
The response has been overwhelming and by Monday there were a million new users waiting in line. At the time of writing the number stands at 1,033,550 and rising by the minute. This could increase the company’s overall customer base of 3 million by over 30%.
Initially the service will be available in five states; California, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Montana. Complete coverage is planned for the middle of the year and the company is looking to expand out of the US. Analysts maintain that there is still a strong demand for crypto despite recent news out of Japan;
“Despite the downturn in price and the fraud in Japan, the interest in the cryptospace remains very high. More and more futures commission merchants are starting to execute and settle the bitcoin futures contracts.”
Exchange bottlenecks
Currently crypto exchanges struggle to handle high demand and heavy trading volume. Binance and Bittrex both suspended new user registrations during the price surge earlier this month and Coinbase simply closed its digital doors altogether. Robinhood appears to be aware of this with its gradual rollout. Co-founder Baiju Bhatt offered a refreshing outlook compared to existing exchanges when he told media;
“Crypto is going to change the world and we want to help drive that. Today our business transacts 10,000 different symbols in equities and ETFs. We see millions of trades a day. In our brokerage industry there is no excuse for down time. We plan on bringing that mind-set to the crypto space. We don’t view any of that stuff as acceptable.”
He added that the move into the crypto space was a customer acquisition play;
“We are going to break-even on this. But it could dramatically increase user growth.”
It looks like that move has paid off with over a million in the queue already in just four days.