Robinhood’s shares jumped almost 3% on Monday after it completed its acquisition of Bitstamp, a crypto exchange.
But analysts say the growth from the online trading platform’s crypto push may just be starting. According to Bernstein, Robinhood’s digital assets offerings will drive its shares another 54%, to $105, by this time next year.
“We expect [Robinhood] to continue gaining market share in trading revenues driven by strong product pipeline across equities, crypto, and disruptive products such as prediction markets and tokenisation,” wrote Guatam Chhugani and other analysts in a May note.
Robinhood’s acquisition of Bitstamp, announced in June 2024, marks the latest way in which financial firms are muscling into the crypto space.
Both traditional players such as Morgan Stanley, which owns the E*Trade platform, and fintech powerhouses like Revolut are ratcheting up their digital asset businesses.
On Tuesday, Sifted reported that Revolut, a British licensed challenger bank, is plotting a move into crypto derivatives.
At the same time, Kraken and other crypto stalwarts are going the other way by tapping into traditional financial services like stock trading.
And more may come, with banking giants JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo reportedly exploring the launch of their own stablecoins.
The Trump effect
The growing competition is a sign of the times.
Things were changing even before US President Donald Trump won last year’s election on a pro-crypto platform.
Two key watershed moments were when former Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler’s begrudgingly having to approve first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, and then Ethereum ETFs.
Suddenly, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and other Wall Street leaders were touting the benefits of tokenisation and cryptocurrencies as a new asset class. Robinhood’s home advantage
While Robinhood isn’t a native crypto firm, it does have a home advantage of sorts thanks to it having offered crypto-trading services since 2021, Bernstein wrote.
In May, the analysts estimated that the fintech firm controlled some 30% of the US retail crypto-trading market.
Crypto market movers
Bitcoin is up 1% over the past 24 hours to trade at $105,310.
Ethereum is up 5% to trade at $2,614.
What we’re reading
Hyperliquid rides $244bn trading surge into the top league with Binance and OKX ― DL News
Bitcoin Goes All In on MAGA, Shedding Its Antigovernment Slant — The Wall Street Journal
Ethereum EIP-7702 Brings New Risks, Wintermute Says ― Unchained
What you missed this week — Milk Road
MetaMask wallets will get easier to access after latest Consensys acquisition ― DL News
Eric Johansson is DL News’ News Editor. Got a tip? Email at [email protected].
