Summary
Robinhood has begun rolling out cryptocurrency trading to eligible customers in the UK, allowing users to buy and sell more than 50 digital assets directly within its main investing app through Bitstamp, the long-serving exchange it acquired for $200 million last year. The rollout, which starts this week, adds cryptocurrencies to its existing stocks and shares ISAs, equities, options, and futures products in a single application.
Key Facts
- Began rolling out crypto trading to eligible UK customers through Bitstamp
- More than 50 digital assets available in main investing app
- Adds crypto to existing stocks/ISAs, equities, options, futures products
- Launches with zero trading fees, no account maintenance fees, no custody fees
- UK customers pay 0.1% FX fee, rising to 0.3% for certain weekend conversions
- Assets include BTC, ETH, XRP, HYPE
- Crypto trading provided through Bitstamp UK Ltd, registered with UK FCA as crypto asset service provider
- Crypto holdings through Bitstamp UK not covered by FSCS or Financial Ombudsman Service
- Introduces Robinhood Cortex Digests for Crypto — generative AI feature analyzing news, market data, technical indicators
- Robinhood Chain L2 has generated >$18B in DEX volume, >$840M TVL since July 1 launch
Why It Matters
Robinhood's UK crypto launch is a significant step in its international expansion and its push to become an all-in-one investment platform. By integrating crypto trading through Bitstamp — the exchange it acquired for $200 million — Robinhood can offer UK customers digital assets within its main app alongside stocks, ISAs, options, and futures. The zero-fee launch and AI-powered Cortex Digests position Robinhood competitively in the UK market. The launch follows Robinhood's recent push to diversify beyond trading, with prediction markets revenue ($156M) surpassing crypto ($100M) in Q2. For the UK fintech and crypto sector, Robinhood's entry adds a major global player to the competitive UK investing landscape, leveraging the FCA-registered Bitstamp UK infrastructure.