Robinhood exec says crypto is just their first step into Canada

How Robinhood wants to use crypto to reach Canada

While Robinhood may expand their offerings down the road, they’ve begun their Canadian entry with a cryptocurrency trading platform. That launch comes at a time when crypto interest appears to be waning. Bitcoin has lost about one third of its value over the past 12 months, though flows into US-listed cryptocurrency ETFs have picked up in volume over the past month. Kerbrat says his firm’s approach is to remain agnostic to the price activity in cryptocurrencies and focus on the demand for access by investors. He says that this approach allows Robinhood to outcompete on crypto products and tools, contrasting their consistent approach with competitor firms who focus on the space only when there’s momentum in the space.

Beyond accessing cryptocurrencies, Kerbrat says his firm wants to offer more ways to access private and public asset classes through blockchain tokenization. This process, which creates a tradeable ‘token’ from a traditional asset, can make accessing and trading certain assets far easier. Kerbrat says that Robinhood has begun with the tokenization of the US Dollar as well as certain US-listed stocks and ETFs. He wants to offer other tokenized versions of assets that Canadian investors have a harder time accessing through available retail channels.