Robinhood crypto transaction revenues drop 18%
Robinhood executives asked for “additional regulatory clarity” in May
Robinhood co-founders Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt | Lauren Sopourn for Blockworks
Robinhood’s second quarter crypto trading revenues sank 18% to $31 million, the company said in its earnings report on Wednesday.
The drop marks the second consecutive quarter of revenue declines in the company’s crypto business, which is primarily driven by its cut of trading fees.
Robinhood reported that overall assets under custody, including cryptocurrencies and equities, increased 13% to $89 billion, though monthly active users dropped by a million to 10.8 million.
“In Q2, we reached a significant milestone by achieving GAAP profitability for the first time as a public company,” wrote CEO Vlad Tenev in the earnings report.
Last quarter, Robinhood recorded a slight downtick in crypto transaction revenue, falling to $38 million. Executives on the earnings call were also hesitant about the “regulatory scrutiny” that the crypto sector has faced back on May 10. But executives also alluded to the “potential to grow [Robinhood’s] market share.”
On the US publicly traded brokerage’s earnings call on Wednesday, Tenev said Robinhood will be “staying mindful of applicable regulations” in growing its market share.
“Our goal is to be the safest, most trusted place for customers to hold trade and transact with their crypto,” Tenev said on the company’s earnings call late Wednesday.”
Since last quarter, the SEC has filed lawsuits against both Coinbase and Binance. Following the lawsuits, Robinhood moved to delist cardano (ADA), polygon (MATIC) and solana (SOL) after the three were listed in the lawsuits.
The delisting went into effect in late June. In a statement to Blockworks at the time, Robinhood acknowledged that the cryptos were listed by the SEC as unregistered securities, which prompted the delistings.
Robinhood executives said last quarter that “additional regulatory clarity would be super helpful” adding that they have “respect” for US regulatory efforts.
Despite policymakers on the Hill debating bills focused on cryptocurrencies, crypto regulation has yet to crystalize. Though the recent Ripple ruling could be seen as step forward for the industry, with a judge finding that XRP being sold to institutional investors fell under securities law, yet programmatic sales were deemed permissible.
Updated August 2, 2023 at 5:20 PM ET. Adds quote from Robinhood’s chief executive on the company’s earnings call.
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