Markets
Robinhood Is Acquiring $232 Billion Crypto Exchange Bitstamp – DL News
- The deal is worth US$200 million in cash and is expected to close in 2025.
- Bitstamp hosted over $232 billion in trading volume today.
Robinhood is acquiring one of the industry’s oldest cryptocurrency exchanges, Bitstamp, expanding the stock trading app’s cryptocurrency presence.
The acquisition is worth approximately $200 million, according to Robinhood’s announcement. The deal is expected to close in 2025.
“Through this strategic combination, we are better positioned to expand our presence outside the US and welcome institutional clients to Robinhood,” said Johan Kerbrat, general manager of Robinhood Crypto, in the announcement.
Robinhood’s acquisition highlights how a number of fintech companies – such as Revised, StripeIt is PayPal – are making cryptography the foundation of their business.
However, the fintech has also found itself in the crosshairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission because of its crypto services.
Robinhood’s Crypto Push
Robinhood is betting big on crypto.
Kerbrat said DL News wants to be “the on-ramp to the cryptographic world”.
DL News recently revealed that the stock trading app is recruiting for its crypto team on the back of launch a crypto trading service in the European Union, and Expanding your crypto wallet with an Arbitrum add-on.
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The efforts are paying off.
Before the Bitstamp acquisition came to an end, research firm Bernstein estimated that Robinhood’s crypto push would catapult its market value to around $26 billion by 2025, up from nearly $19 billion today.
The company’s crypto arm boosted its growth in the last quarter of 2023, with its cryptocurrency revenue rising to $43 million of the company’s total $200 million in transaction-based revenues.
For 2023 As a whole, cryptocurrencies accounted for 17% of the company’s $785 million in transaction-based revenue.
The new acquisition fits into this impulse.
What is Bitstamp?
Bitstamp markets itself as one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, having been founded in 2011.
Today, it serves users in Asia, the US, Europe and the UK. It also already offers services such as lending and staking, which are key components of crypto markets after buying and selling tokens.
The exchange recorded more than $232 billion in trading volume last day, according to CoinGecko.
The second
The announcement comes as the SEC has made Robinhood a target due to its crypto business.
In a May 8 filing, Robinhood revealed that the SEC had contacted the company to notify it of its recommendation to file an enforcement action.
The market watchdog said Robinhood was offering unregistered securities, allowing users to buy and sell various cryptocurrencies, a line of reasoning found in its actions against Coinbase and Consensys.
“We firmly believe that the assets listed on our platform are not securities,” Dan Gallagher, Robinhood’s chief legal officer, said at the time.
Robinhood and Bistamp did not immediately respond to DL News‘request for comment.
Liam Kelly is a DeFi correspondent at DL News. Eric Johansson is news editor at DL News. Have a tip? Email them to liam@dlnews.com It is eric@dlnews.com.