Robinhood Markets (HOOD) said it has activated its new crypto wallet for its eligible two million clients in its networks. This means that digital transfers will now be possible in the highly firewalled investment application. The announcement was made by Aparna Chennapragada during the 2022 Bitcoin Conference in Miami.
Before this, only a few testers were allowed to move Ether (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), and a few more coins in and out of the wallet. Now, all clients who were eagerly waiting for the testing phase to end can use the application.
Robinhood will also add support for Bitcoins via the Lightning Network, which is preferred for speed and low transaction charges. For the larger community, it is the best way to get Bitcoin at a lower price and in an eco-friendly manner.
HOOD’s Crypto Push
HOOD, the Robinhood’s wallet, was first mentioned to users in September, and it rocks awesome features, such as private keys, FAQ page, corporate wallets, and control customers. For users who would want to maintain full control over their coins, it is possible to transfer them from the HOOD to the preferred wallets.
However, many users who got their first cryptos via crypto markets betting on Robinhood-held DOGE are likely to prefer keeping the coins in the HOOD. They can also use and send the meme coins; perhaps on Tesla brands belt buckles and Dallas Mavericks basketball tickets.
Early in 2021, close to 10 million Robinhood users swapped their coins when the company made the appeal. For the three years period that Robinhood has been trading, it has generated explosive revenue. In the last quarter of 2021, Robinhood generated USD 48 million.
Vlad Tenev, the CEO of Robinhood, added that the crypto wallets are only the first step in connecting customers to the crypto ecosystem.
Limitation
Still, Robinhood’s multi-asset wallet is not short of challenges. The most notable is that it is unable to connect to MetaMask, the Ethereum based service. Therefore, it cannot accept non-fungible tokens (NFTs), ERC-TOKENS, or other assets not listed on Robinhood. Again, tokens that are created with airdrops do not work.
A statement from Its FAQ page indicates that a non-fungible token sent to Robinhood’s Ethereum wallet is likely to get lost and become unrecoverable. Staking is also impossible.
To move Robinhood-based cryptos into other wallets with similar capabilities, users will not be charged anything. Instead, the company will only apply an estimated gas fee but not withdrawal charges to outgoing transfers.
Again, note that there is a USD 5,000 cap on all outbound transfers. Users are also required to go through identity checks as well as employ 2-factor authentication to be able to access the wallet.
