Robinhood has listed memecoins Pengu (PENGU), Pnut (PNUT) and Popcat (POPCAT) as the net brokerage doubles down on cryptocurrency buying and selling, it mentioned on March 13.
The listings mark Robinhood’s newest effort to increase its crypto choices and compete with incumbent trade Coinbase.
Memecoin buying and selling has change into a key battleground as rival exchanges — together with Coinbase and Binance.US — speed up new coin listings after US President Donald Trump’s November election win.
Robinhood listed new memecoins. Supply: Robinhood
Associated: Robinhood suggestions Singapore launch, touts memecoin curiosity: Report
Sturdy demand
In February, Robinhood Crypto mentioned its clients had proven sturdy demand for extra memecoin buying and selling choices.
Along with its newly launched cash, Robinhood lists Dogecoin (DOGE), the biggest memecoin by market capitalization. It additionally launched crypto futures buying and selling in January.
“We don’t need to make choices for the shopper but when clients are asking for one thing and we really feel like we’ve a method to provide it safely, we’ll do it,” Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood Crypto’s vp and common supervisor, reportedly advised Bloomberg.
Robinhood, finest referred to as a inventory buying and selling platform, has been investing closely in crypto merchandise since final yr.
In February, the net brokerage reported a 700% year-over-year bounce in crypto revenues.
Trump’s election win and rising market costs fueled across-the-board will increase in crypto buying and selling within the fourth quarter of 2024.
Robinhood’s change in buying and selling volumes for equities, choices contracts and crypto. Supply: Robinhood
Regulatory reversal
Trump — who has promised to make America the “world’s crypto capital” — has appointed industry-friendly management to key regulatory positions.
In February, the US Securities and Trade Fee mentioned most memecoins don’t qualify as securities and thus don’t fall below the regulators’ jurisdiction.
This was a stark reversal from its stance below Joe Biden’s administration when former SEC Chair Gary Gensler mentioned he thought most cryptocurrencies constituted securities.
The identical month, the company dropped an enforcement motion in opposition to Robinhood for alleged securities legislation violations tied to its crypto buying and selling platform.
X Corridor of Flame: Memecoins will die and DeFi will rise once more — Sasha Ivanov