This transfer will permit Robinhood to compete extra aggressively within the crypto alternate market.
Robinhood, the favored inventory and crypto buying and selling platform, introduced it has entered an settlement to amass Bitstamp, the veteran cryptocurrency alternate, for $200 million in money.
Introduced on June 6, the businesses count on to finalize the deal in the course of the first half of 2025. Robinhood famous that proudly owning Bitstamp will broaden its attain past the U.S. crypto market, with Bitstamp additionally boasting a major buyer base in Europe, the UK, and Asia.
“The acquisition of Bitstamp is a major step in growing our crypto business,” said Johann Kerbrat, the general manager of Robinhood Crypto. “Through this strategic combination, we are better positioned to expand our footprint outside of the U.S. and welcome institutional customers to Robinhood.”
In response to Robinhood CEO, Vlad Tenev, the corporate’s acquisition of Bitstamp will broaden its crypto choices to incorporate a spot alternate, institutional lending, and expanded staking providers.
Presently, Robinhood acts as an middleman that sells orders to market makers, relatively than executing them immediately as a standard spot alternate. Robinhood hosted $36 billion in notional crypto buying and selling quantity throughout Q1 2024, equating to a every day common of $400 million.
Robinhood started providing crypto buying and selling providers to European Union purchasers final December. The corporate additionally provides a non-custodial pockets to U.S. customers and SOL staking to European prospects.
Bitstamp, established within the U.Okay. in 2011, has persistently ranked among the many prime centralized exchanges by quantity over the previous decade. Bitstamp at present ranks twentieth by 24-hour quantity with $238 million, in line with CoinGecko.
JB Graftieaux, Bitstamp’s CEO, famous that he and the remainder of the alternate’s management staff will retain their positions post-acquisition.
The acquisition is topic to regulatory approvals and customary closing situations. Barclays Capital Inc. served because the unique monetary advisor to Robinhood, whereas Galaxy Digital Companions LLC was the monetary advisor to Bitstamp.