Robinhood has expanded its European offering, which allows customers to move crypto into and out of the app.
Johann Kerbrat from Robinhood told Blockworks his company will keep releasing new features. Currently, Robinhood’s marketing is limited to certain countries in Europe while it waits for its MiCA licence.
Robinhood plans to expand its business once it has this in place. “across the EU.”
Kerbrat has explained the simple reason behind Robinhood’s EU emphasis.
“You have a lot more companies in the EU working on crypto than in the US. We have a bit more of a clear framework, and so we are able to launch the product…in a fast way, because we know how to adapt to the regulatory framework, and because we’re getting this constant feedback loop from customers, we’re able to…add what’s missing or what they are looking for,” “He said”
Unfortunately, it’s not surprising that the US market has its challenges. It’s obvious that there’s no crypto-license which would allow Robinhood’s US customers to enjoy the same type of services. There’s also the annoying Wells Notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Kerbrat says the SEC is yet to respond. “at this point.”
“We were disappointed. I think we’ve been really focusing on establishing a safe business. We didn’t list a ton of assets like some of our competitors. We never offered staking in the US. So, you know, we’ve felt like we’ve done our work to work with the SEC and get to a good position, but we were obviously disappointed with the Wells notice,” Kerbrat said.
At this point, it’s not clear what plans the SEC has. To round off its fiscal year, the SEC had an enforcement spree involving cryptos.
The SEC’s approach to other cases led us to write in May, that, given the way it has handled previous lawsuits, we could expect it will file their lawsuits this summer, (if that is what it decides because Wells Notices are not always a sign of a pending lawsuit). And it did…with Consensys, after the company received a Wells notice last spring. However, we’ve not yet seen actual litigation against Robinhood and Uniswap.
Kerbrat claims that despite this will they, won’t you situation with the SEC there has been no real change for Robinhood in its US operations.
He noted that they are not focused on adding new assets to the platform.
“Our focus at this point is more about making sure that the features we have are working for our customers,” He noted.
Robinhood is a great indicator for retail because of its large customer base.
“I think we still see a lot of engagement off-chain and onchain. And I think the onchain part is important because it really shows that people are not just buying the crypto somewhere and holding it there, but we actually see them transacting and using a self-custody wallet, engaging with steps and all these kinds of things. So we haven’t seen too much of that changing. We do see volume cycling, and that’s something that we are used to. We see it almost every year,” “He said”
Kerbrat addressed stablecoins as well. Kerbrat also addressed the stablecoin rumors. “very interesting business,” He clarified this “at this point we don’t have anything that we are preparing.”
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