Key Takeaways
- Trading platform Robinhood is adding the USDC stablecoin to its list of supported cryptocurrency assets.
- Robinhood currently supports 18 other crypto assets, but USDC is its first supported stablecoin.
- Robinhood and Circle executives will discuss the news further during San Francisco’s Converge22 event.
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Trading platform Robinhood is adding USD Coin (USDC) to its selection of tradable assets.
Robinhood Introduces USDC
Robinhood customers will soon have access to USDC.
According to a tweet from the company, USDC will be available for transfer via both Polygon and Ethereum. The asset will be available starting on September 21.
Robinhood has not issued a full statement on the addition of USDC. However, the company’s crypto CTO, Johann Kerbrat, stated that he will discuss the matter further next week during the Converge22 conference in San Francisco. There, Kerbrat says he will “talk about what [USDC] means for Robinhood, and what’s to come.”
Meanwhile, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire wrote: “This is so good! Congrats … and a major win for USDC reaching into [the] mainstream.” He implied that Circle would also attend Converge22 to “dive in” to the topic.
Those statements might suggest that Robinhood may engage more deeply with USDC than it does with other crypto assets. However, Robinhood’s USDC information page does not suggest anything out of the ordinary. That page explains that Robinhood “facilitates USDC purchases and redemptions from Circle” but does not issue USDC or hold USDC reserves.
Furthermore, that page says Robinhood “has no obligation to repurchase your USDC for USD.” That responsibility presumably falls on USDC issuer Circle.
Robinhood currently supports 18 other cryptocurrencies, including major assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
USDC is the first stablecoin that Robinhood will support as a tradable asset. However, the company also provides real-time data for two other stablecoins: USDT and DAI.
Robinhood has been expanding its crypto offerings gradually in recent years. The company has supported crypto trading since 2018 but did not begin to allow crypto withdrawals until recently. It is now introducing a non-custodial wallet to give customers more direct control over their crypto.
In a recent earnings call, CEO Vlad Tenev said that the company is working on expanding its crypto listings, noting that “customers tell us they want us to introduce more coins.”
Despite its growing support for cryptocurrency, the company is also downsizing. It laid off a significant portion of its staff this summer due to a downturn in the crypto market.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies.
