Robinhood’s $200 million Bitstamp offer takes it past retail buying and selling

Robinhood has formally closed its $200 million acquisition of Bitstamp, bringing one of the vital global’s longest-running cryptocurrency exchanges into its crease and signaling a strategic shift past retail buying and selling and into the arena of establishments.

The all-cash offer, first introduced endmost day, offers Robinhood a right away world footprint — together with greater than 50 lively crypto licenses throughout Europe, the United Kingdom and Asia — in addition to a longtime institutional consumer bottom, one thing the retail buying and selling app has lengthy lacked.

For Robinhood, the offer marks a exit into deeper waters: institutional crypto flows, lending and staking infrastructure, and white-label “crypto-as-a-service” merchandise constructed for hedge finances, fintechs and registered funding advisors — all of which require tough techniques for custody, value discovery and agreement.

“I wouldn’t call it necessarily a pivot,” Robinhood Crypto Common Supervisor Johann Kerbrat advised CNBC. “For us, it’s combining the strengths of the two businesses. We are one of the largest retail marketplaces in the U.S. … They have products that we don’t have, like order books, crypto as a service, advanced API and lending and staking, and thanks to that, we will be able to get into this space not starting from scratch.”

Robinhood, which introduced crypto buying and selling in 2018 and helped pressure the meme-coin mania of 2021, has in contemporary months labored to rebrand itself as a major participant within the upcoming segment of virtual asset finance — one who’s an increasing number of outlined by way of law, institutional capital, and cross-border festival.

“Now that we’re starting to see the regulatory clarity coming from Congress and the administration, more and more institutions are going to want to get into crypto,” Kerbrat mentioned.

The Bitstamp offer offers it a head get started.

Based in 2011, Bitstamp is understood for its deep liquidity, compliant recognition and minimalist method. Life now not flashy, Bitstamp has weathered a couple of marketplace cycles and constructed longstanding relationships with institutional companions throughout Europe and Asia — one thing Robinhood plans to leverage.

Previous this date, Robinhood additionally received Canadian crypto company WonderFi to faucet into Canada’s established consumer bottom.

“Robinhood is a marketplace. We don’t match orders. And with Bitstamp, we will have a robust product offering that will really allow us to build more on the active trader and advanced trader side of things,” Kerbrat mentioned.

“That’s going to be a big step for us and really diversify our crypto business, not just from retail in the U.S. — to a global offering,” he mentioned.

It additionally offers Robinhood a regulatory on-ramp to Europe, the place crypto regulations are clearer when compared with the fragmented method within the U.S.

The corporate showed it’s going to guard Bitstamp’s current interfaces and operations for now, date exploring deeper integration over year. Bitstamp is already being worn at the back of the scenes for shrewd line routing via Robinhood’s institutional internet platform, Robinhood Ledger.

“The flow we’re sending to Bitstamp will make Bitstamp more lively — and attract more institutions,” Kerbrat mentioned.

The purchase closes at a essential year for Robinhood.

The fintech participant has endured to extend aggressively, together with record pristine tokens, launching staking, and teasing world product rollouts. Bitstamp’s regulatory observe file and licensing portfolio would possibly deal a measure of insulation as Robinhood pushes additional into pristine world markets.

Kerbrat mentioned he doesn’t not include the opportunity of alternative acquisitions.

“If we can find a way to accelerate by at least 18 months or two years — and we have a lot of great reason to believe this is a great acquisition — it’s something that we’ll definitely look at,” he mentioned.