Robinhood is a stock brokerage that allows customers to buy and sell U.S. listed stocks and ETFs with zero commission.
Robinhood Markets Inc., or simply Robinhood, is a U.S.-based financial services company headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The company offers the Robinhood smartphone mobile app, which allows individuals to invest in publicly tradedcompanies and exchange-traded funds listed on U.S. stock exchanges without paying a commission. The company makes money from interest earned on customers’ cash balances and margin lending, and by selling order flow to high frequency trading firms.
After an April 2017 fundraising, Robinhood had a $1.3 billion valuation. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2018 that the company had closed another round of financing that valued the company at $5.6 billion.
Vlad Tenev recently noted the potential of crypto tokenization to allow retail investors to access private companies like OpenAI and SpaceX.
With its acquisition, Robinhood is looking to leverage the company’s operational license to enter the Asian market.
Robinhood plans to introduce futures trading for diverse assets including Bitcoin, commodities, and forex, marking a significant expansion of its platform offerings.