Robinhood Broadens Crypto Service to Europe, Notes Region’s Digital Asset Regulation

Popular U.S.-based brokerage platform Robinhood (HOOD) on Thursday started letting customers in the European Union (EU) trade crypto, hailing the region’s comprehensive digital asset rules.

To spur customers to use the service, Robinhood will pay customers a percentage of their trading volume back every month, paid in bitcoin (BTC), according to a Thursday blog post. And users can earn more BTC for referring new customers.

This expansion debuts as cryptocurrencies have been rallying after a brutal bear market recovering to a $1.5 trillion total market capitalization, its highest level since May 2022. Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency, has soared lately. Rising trading volumes also mean more revenue for trading platforms.

Meanwhile, EU countries are on track to implement a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets called MiCA, offering legal clarity for crypto service providers and bolstering the region’s global position as a crypto hub.

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“The EU has developed one of the world’s most comprehensive policies for crypto asset regulation, which is why we chose the region to anchor Robinhood Crypto’s international expansion plans,” Robinhood Crypto’s general manager Johann Kerbrat said in the blog post.

The company also unveiled plans in its third-quarter earnings report to start brokerage operations in the U.K. and began to onboard customers last week.

Robinhood’s stock price is up roughly 40% year-to-date, trailing crypto exchange giant Coinbase’s (COIN) huge 300% increase.