Robinhood Crypto Wallet Beta Program Goes Live
Since late last year, there’s been plenty of news on Robinhood and its crypto plans.
At the end of December, news had hit the wires of Robinhood launching a beta version of its wallet in 2022. Robinhood had reportedly first announced testing its digital wallet feature back in September. The expansion into the crypto space was set to start with enabling the deposit and withdrawals of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE).
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Amidst increasing crypto regulatory scrutiny, Robinhood aims to take the battle to crypto exchanges. According to Statista, Robinhood has seen its number of users surge from just 500,000 in 2014 to more than 20 million in 2021. By contrast, the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance (based on 24-hour volume) has an estimated user base of 28.6m as at October 2021.
Robinhood Officially Launches Crypto Wallet
On Thursday, Robinhood announced the release of its digital wallet beta program. Initially, the wallet will be available to just 1,000 waitlisted customers. The platform expects the program to extend to 10,000 waitlisted customers by March.
The wallet will allow customers to send and receive their crypto from Robinhood to external crypto wallets. Having only previously supported the buying and selling of cryptos, Robinhood crypto holders can fully connect to the greater blockchain ecosystem for the very first time.
Key features of the wallet beta program include:
- Daily withdrawal limit of $2,999.
- 10 transactions per day.
- Two-factor authentication.
During the Beta program, Robinhood also intends to:
- Add QR scanning.
- Improve the transaction history interface.
- Add block explorer support.
- Additionally, users will be able to “calculate the Dollar amount of crypto to send/receive in terms of Dollar amounts”.
At the time of writing, Robinhood supports the buying and selling of 7 cryptos. These are Bitcoin SV (BSV), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin (BTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum Classic (ETC), and Ethereum (ETH).
Robinhood’s Launch Coincides with Increased Regulatory Scrutiny
The heavily anticipated launch of the wallet beta program comes at a tricky time for the crypto market. Since late last year, regulatory chatter and activity has been on the rise, which has tested support for cryptos.
Just this week, news hit the wires of SEC Chair Gary Gensler warning of a crackdown on digital assets this year. The SEC Chair talked of more direct regulation of crypto trading platforms in the coming months. Gensler’s warning follows recent calls from the Bank of England, the IMF, and India’s Prime Minister for a global framework to regulate cryptos.