Robinhood launches crypto trading service in the EU

cnbc.com:

Online brokerage giant Robinhood on Thursday said it's launching a cryptocurrency trading feature in the European Union, pushing further outside the United States as the company looks to unlock growth from international markets.

Robinhood said its new crypto product would allow customers to buy, sell, and hold from a range of more than 25 tokens, including bitcoin, ether, ripple, cardano, solana, and polkadot. The company hopes to offer more tokens, as well as the ability to transfer and «stake,» or earn rewards from, crypto in 2024.

The move marks Robinhood's second major expansion outside of the U.S., after it announced late last month that it plans to launch stock trades for U.K. customers by early 2024. The company opened a waitlist in the U.K. last week for the service, which will offer yields of up to 5% on customer deposits.

Robinhood is looking to tempt EU users into using its service with the ability to earn free bitcoin for users who trade lots and refer the app to their friends. The company will offer users up to one bitcoin, based on a a percentage of their monthly trading volume and the number of users they refer when they sign up.

It comes as several major U.S. crypto firms are turning to the European Union for growth after facing a tough time from regulators stateside. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has targeted several crypto firms, including Coinbase and Binance, with lawsuits alleging they violated securities laws.

The EU, meanwhile, has proposed a comprehensive set of regulation, called the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, that would bring in stricter rules for crypto trading platforms and issuers of so-called stablecoins — tokens pegged to real-world assets like the U.S. dollar or