Robinhood is finally releasing a self-custody crypto wallet for its users, and immediately boasts 10,000 beta testers and a 1,000,000 user waitlist. This move allows users to finally experience Web3 and use cryptocurrencies for their intended purposes, instead of just speculating on price action. Robinhood has been aggressively expanding into the cryptocurrency industry for the past year, and has even racked up a $30 million fine along the way due to the regulatory corners it cut during the 2021 crypto bubble.
Last week, Robinhood listed the USDC stablecoin on its exchange, which gives users a way to deposit dollars into their Ethereum/Polygon wallets. However, users who do not own a crypto wallet or use Web3 apps were confused by this move, since USDC is always worth $1.00, and for those who only speculate on price action, buying a stablecoin is utterly pointless.
However, the move to list USDC now makes sense, as Robinhood's self-custody crypto wallet is compatible with USDC. Robinhood released its self-custody crypto wallet for beta testing to 10,000 users, and the waitlist boasts 1,000,000 interested users. Robinhood has chosen to deploy its wallet on Polygon, a 'Layer-2' scaling solution for Ethereum, and thanks to Polygon's low blockchain gas fees it will be easy and cheap for Robinhood customers to play around on Web3. To sweeten the deal further, Robinhood wallet users will enjoy gas-free crypto trading directly inside the app. While NFTs are not yet supported, they will be implemented later.
Crypto Is More Than Just A Speculative Asset Class
As was reported by Bitcoin.com back in May, Robinhood has been working on its self-custody crypto wallet for some time. By making self-custody crypto wallets easy to understand and use, Robinhood could help onboard the next 1,000,000 users to Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications and other Web3 apps, for which Polygon boasts a sizable ecosystem.
With easy access to Polygon, Robinhood users will be able to use lending and borrowing apps like Aave, on-chain decentralized exchange (DEX) apps like Quickswap, participate in liquidity pools and yield farming schemes, and can explore Polygon's Play-To-Earn gaming industry. DefiPrime provides a list of DeFi apps on the Polygon blockchain, which the Robinhood self-custody crypto wallet should be able to access.
Robinhood's new crypto wallet has been a long time in the making, and now it is finally rolling out. With 10,000 users testing the beta and more than 1,000,000 users on the waitlist, Robinhood is quickly becoming a power-player in the Web3 ecosystem. By giving users the ability to use cryptocurrencies in their native environments, Robinhood is assisting with reducing speculation and increasing participation in the Web3 economy.
Source: Robinhood, RobinhoodApp/Twitter, Bitcoin.com, DefiPrime