Shares of Robinhood Markets jumped on Thursday following the company’s announcement of a strong increase in trading volumes for February. The boost is seen as a positive sign for the retail-focused brokerage and indicates an uptick for similar platforms like Coinbase Global.
Robinhood reported that its equity trading volumes for February reached $80.9 billion, marking a 36% rise from January and a 41% increase from the same month last year. This surge in trading activity is particularly beneficial for Robinhood, given that the bulk of its revenue comes from transaction-based fees.
The announcement saw Robinhood’s shares climb 12% in premarket trading on Thursday, contributing to a 35% gain since the start of 2024.
Additionally, Robinhood’s assets under custody have grown 59% year-over-year as of February, with a notable increase in options contracts trading.
The trend extends to cryptocurrency trading as well. Despite a previous downturn in the crypto market, Bitcoin’s recovery, with a 75% increase this year, has revived interest in digital asset trading.
Robinhood reported $6.5 billion in crypto trading volumes for February, up 10% from January and 86% from the previous year. This rebound in crypto trading is crucial for Robinhood, as it tends to be more profitable than stock trading.
For Coinbase, the growth in crypto trading volumes at Robinhood suggests a healthy market for retail crypto investors, despite competition from new spot Bitcoin ETFs, which have seen massive inflows and higher trading volumes since their introduction.
Robinhood also highlighted its expansion into the European market and the integration of its wallet on-ramp with MetaMask as it seeks to be a bridge between traditional finance and crypto markets.
“We think it increases overall market interest in crypto and also brings liquidity to the market. So, net-net, we’re really pleased with the bitcoin ETFs. I think it really shows the investments that we’ve made in our platform. We think we can be the leading player in bridging the worlds of traditional finance and crypto, so there’s a lot more where that came from,” CEO Tenev said on the February earnings call. Top of Form
