Financial services company that offers cryptocurrency trading Robinhood announced its own digital asset portfolio last Thursday (19). According to the announcement, the Robinhood wallet consists of an app for smartphones running iOS (Apple’s mobile operating system) that allows users to transfer and view their cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
Currently, the crypto wallet supports both Polygon and Ethereum – in terms of tokens and NFTs. But the idea is to increase the number of blockchains soon. In addition, Android support is also expected to hit the market later this year. The app in question was launched in beta for just 10,000 waitlisted customers in September last year. By description, Robinhood Wallet comes close to competing wallets like MetaMask, Phantom, and Coinbase Wallet, for example.
Broker launching an online cryptocurrency wallet
According to Johann Kerbrat, general manager of cryptocurrency at Robinhood, the product will gradually reach more than 1 million people who have been on the waiting list.
“We now support over 50 ERC tokens listed in the app. Customers can transfer tokens such as COMP, MATIC, SHIB, SOL, UNI, USDC and more to the Robinhood app and other platforms to their Robinhood wallet.” We’ve also added support for NFT for the network Ethereum and Polygon, so you can view and store your favorite pools securely.”
Also according to Kerbrat, wallet customers will still be able to exchange cryptocurrencies and tokens without network fees on Polygon. They can also connect to your favorite Web 3.0 applications.
We will be sharing access tokens with customers that will give them access to the Robinhood Wallet iOS app. So watch your email. We are rolling out access over the next few weeks.
Kerbrat said that all users who are granted access to the wallet will receive a “gift” of $5 worth of cryptocurrency. As he explained, the solution is not just a wallet but rather “Web Browser 3.0”.
“The Robinhood Wallet is a completely different product housed in a separate standalone app that gives users full control over their cryptocurrency and provides access to more advanced features like connecting to dApps and NFT markets,” Kerbrat told Decrypt.
Cryptocurrency physical wallet
The popularity of self-custodial cryptocurrency wallets has increased throughout 2022, particularly after the collapse of FTX and increased distrust of centralized exchanges in general. According to CryptoSlate data as of December 2022, 15 million Bitcoin (BTC) entered self-custody wallets over the course of 2022. This increased the illiquid supply of BTC to 78% at that time.
In addition to Robinhood, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol 1inch also announced a wallet this week. But in this case, it’s a hardware wallet. That is, a physical crypto wallet with (offline) cold storage.