The launch of “Robinhood Connect”, a fiat-to-cryptocurrency onramp compatible with decentralized applications (DApps) and self-custody wallets, was announced at Consensus 2023 on April 27.
Introducing our latest investment in crypto, Robinhood Connect: https://t.co/SmENSYufBA
A low-cost, on-ramp for customers, and a seamless integration for developers. Learn more: https://t.co/rnBnR0LYww pic.twitter.com/6uSIAJkudO
—Robinhood (@RobinhoodApp) April 27, 2023
Positioned as a competitor to similar services like Coinbase Pay and MoonPay, Robinhood Connect essentially allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrency directly to and from their self-custody wallet or natively on DApps using a credit or debit card.
Robinhood Connect integrates with Web3 projects, as developers can embed the service directly into applications. This allows customers to access their Robinhood credentials natively in DApps without having to open the separate Robinhood website or app to log in and transact.
Currently, the service is only available on the MyDoge, Giddy, and Slingshot ecosystems, but compatibility with Exodus and Phantom has already been announced.
Johann Kerbrat, CEO of Robinhood Crypto, explained in a company post that the service was developed in hopes of bringing more people into the cryptocurrency space:
“Cryptocurrencies and Web3 have the potential to change the future of the financial system for the better, but we recognize that there are still significant obstacles preventing wider adoption.”
The market for fiat-to-cryptocurrency conversion services like Robinhood Connect is not exactly crowded, but Robinhood represents one of the only traditional finance partner companies to venture into this space.
As of January 2023, Robinhood claims to have 23 million total user accounts and $74.7 billion in assets under custody. This number is significantly lower than the 110 million verified users Coinbase claims, but the asset count remains similar (Coinbase claims $80 billion in assets on the platform). For comparison, rival companies MoonPay and Webull have around 5 million and 13 million users, respectively.
Along with the launch of Robinhood Connect, the company also announced several changes to the Robinhood app, including the ability to place advanced orders using stop orders and stop limit orders.
The new service and app updates come just a couple of months after the launch of Robinhood’s own self-custody wallet on the iOS App Store, which currently has a 3.9-star rating and ranks 144th in downloads. in the finance category.
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