Robinhood Says Bitcoin is Its Most-Traded Cryptocurrency Ahead of IPO

It’s probably no surprise, but Robinhood said bitcoin was the most-traded cryptocurrency on its trading platform in 2020. In fact, bitcoin hit over $54 billion in daily average market volume as of March 2021, the company said in an amended US Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday. 

The S-1 form revealed bitcoin grew 575% on the trading platform from about $8 billion in February 2018 to $54 billion in March 2021, Robinhood said. 

The company has about 17.7 million active users, with over 50% of its customers being first-time investors and a cumulative $81 billion in assets under custody, it said. 

Robinhood is seeking a market valuation as high as $35 billion through its initial public offering, the filing shows, up 199% from its last private market valuation of $11.7 billion in September 2020. 

The company is anticipating the sale of 55 million shares between $38 and $42 price per share. 

The company said trading activity was “particularly high” during the first two months of the 2021 period and returned to levels more in line with prior periods during the last few weeks of the quarter, which ended on June 30 and remained at similar levels into the early part of the third quarter. 

Robinhood also added that it expects revenue from June 30 to September 30 to be lower compared to the three months prior to that period, as a result of decreased levels of trading activity relative to its record highs, particularly in cryptocurrencies like dogecoin.

The trading platform began as a US stock-focused retail brokerage, but has grown over the years.

Founded in 2013 by Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, Robinhood pioneered free trading with a user-friendly app. The California-based startup became so popular that the entire exchange industry was pushed to drop trading commissions in 2019, Blockworks previously reported. 

The company allows users the ability to trade a handful of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ethereum and dogecoin, in addition to US-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds, as well as related options and american depositary receipts.

From February 21, 2018, the day before Robinhood introduced cryptocurrency trading on its platform, to March 31, 2021, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization has grown from approximately $450 billion to approximately $1.9 trillion, driven by increased adoption of cryptocurrency trading by both retail and institutional investors, as well as continued growth of various non-investing use cases for crypto-assets, it said. 

Although the future market size estimates for cryptocurrency markets are “highly varied,” the historical trend has been strongly supportive, the company said. 

“We believe that growing interest and adoption of cryptocurrency will drive increased customer interest in our platform and that we have significant room to grow even within our current customer base,” it added.