Last year, around this time Robinhood decided to take crypto seriously, diverted resources and shift focus to make Robinhood Crypto a contender in the crypto trading space. What they did was they started working on building real crypto wallets, so Robinhood Crypto users can transfer their coins to and from the Robinhood platform. They were able to achieve this in a very short period of time. That was impressive.
Before this shift in their crypto strategy, Robinhood only had few coins available to trade on their platform and there were no real crypto wallets. Crypto traders on Robinhood could only buy and sell very limited amount of crypto coins they offered, and nobody would be able to transfer any coins to Robinhood from outside wallets, and transfer coins from Robinhood to outside wallets. For this reason, most crypto enthusiasts never took Robinhood crypto seriously.
They were able to implement wallets to the platform, and they were still able to offer zero commission trades. As I have written in the past, I believe this is game changer in crypto trading space and a threat to exchanges like Coinbase who has been relying on trading fees for their profits. Even with the implementation of wallets, Robinhood's Crypto journey would be a long one for several reasons. The biggest one is how they lost trust and confidence of people during the WallStreetBets GameStop stock trading freeze debacle.
Even if we disregard that public relations fiasco, Robinhood was way behind rest of the crypto world. There was and is a lot of work to be done to catch up. Just offering zero commission fee may not be enough. One of the obvious reasons, and things they would have to do is adding more coins to trade and offer traders wide variety of investment and trading options. As soon as wallets became a reality on Robinhood, they started adding more coins. Not a lot, and not too fast. Just a little be at a time.
One of their latest additions is Cardano. It has been added to Robinhood Crypto just today or yesterday. Cardano enthusiasts will definitely welcome this move. Even before listing Cardano, Robinhood was busy adding other coins like LINK, MATIC, COMP, SHIB, SOL, etc. Before only BTC, BCH, LTC, ETH, and DOGE used to be available on Robinhood. Now they also have AVAX, XLM and their list of listed crypto keeps growing.
The first question that comes to my mind and perhaps other Hive people is, WEN HIVE? Probably never. I don't want to be too pessimistic about the possibility of Robinhood listing Hive. But so far it seems to me the criteria they are using more focused on hype and volumes traded in other exchanges. While Robinhood, could become a competition to Coinbase, it is sad to see they are actually following the Coinbase's path. I have lost respect for Coinbase long time ago, when I realized they don't necessarily care about true decentralization and innovation in web3. Their primary goal is how to make more money and how fast.
It seems to me Robinhood is taking the same path. I believe such vision is short term, and they may just become irrelevant in a long term future of the crypto world. Of course, I would be biased when I say Hive is the perfect coin to list. The reasons I consider when making such claim or statement are not just based on blind bias. But also considering the importance of decentralized system and truth-fullness about them.
Robinhood doesn't need to believe in decentralization to build a crypto business. I understand that. However in a long run businesses and platforms that embrace the true benefits of what blockchain innovations offer will be the winners. In the end decentralization would be among the biggest benefits along with bonuses like property rights, ownership, financial independence. Now, I would think embracing these ideas would make Robinhood a better company that can withstand any future challenges in crypto world.
In fact, what made Robinhood a decent company was the idea they embraced in the beginning in building their business model, which was democratizing trading and investment. They understood how trading and investment wasn't accessible to everybody. Trading fees for each purchase or sale of stocks, lack of information about trading, and lack of decent mobile UI platforms served as an obstacle for many. Robinhood was able to break this barriers and make changes in the trading space.
Many bigger brokerages ended up removing trading fee on their platform, after losing market share to Robinhood. Great ideas, vision, and innovation make amazing things happen. Robinhood once was able to have all three. However, they have lost their ways along the way. Maybe money and profits change people and corrupt original vision. Maybe somewhere sometime wrong decisions were made.
With Robinhood Crypto and drastic changes they are making, Robinhood has a great opportunity to reinvest itself and become a visionary and an innovator once more. I don't think it is possible with following the same profiteering path of Coinbase. Coinbase too has strange ways of listing crypto. I have no doubt they give zero consideration for decentralization and innovation in crypto. Will Robinhood care about any of these? Then I ask again, Wen Hive?
On another news, Robinhood recently announced that they will pause withdrawing ETH, AVAX, COMP, LINK, MATIC, SHIB, and UNI during the Ethereum Merge. They are doing so for security reasons, as forks and new code transitions are complicated and nobody knows what to expect. Once the Merge happens and everything continues to work without any issues they will resume withdrawals. It is not clear how long the pause will last at this time. This pause shouldn't impact trading of these crypto assets.
At the same time, it looks like Robinhood will consider ProofOfWork ETH if forks happens after the Merge. They say they will review the situation after the Merge and take appropriate actions if needed. Hopefully, they will support ETHPoW as well if/when that happens. Or at least distribute the coins to ETH holders.
Should Robinhood list Hive or will Robinhood list Hive? What do you think? Let me know in the comments. Congratulations to all Cardano holders!
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