Robinhood is increasing its attain into the futures market by including Bitcoin and Ethereum alongside oil and the S&P 500 index as a part of its broader technique to draw seasoned merchants.
A Robinhood spokesperson informed Decrypt on Wednesday its futures choices through its buying and selling app is anticipated within the “coming months.”
The choices will embody Bitcoin contracts, micro Bitcoin futures, Bitcoin Friday futures, Ethereum futures, and micro Ethereum futures, the spokesperson mentioned.
Micro futures are smaller contracts designed to make futures buying and selling extra accessible to retail and smaller-scale buyers.
The announcement was made throughout Robinhood’s first-ever buyer convention, HOOD Summit, the place the corporate launched its new desktop platform, Robinhood Legend.
The platform is designed particularly for lively merchants, aiming to supply subtle instruments and real-time knowledge, together with the flexibility to commerce futures and index choices instantly from the app.
Robinhood is positioning its concentrate on derivatives as a bid to compete with established gamers like Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE, which already provide crypto futures.
It comes because the crypto market continues to warmth up, with the worth of Bitcoin approaching its all-time excessive, close to $73,700.
“With among the lowest charges within the business and a sublime cellular interface, there can be no motive to commerce futures anyplace else,” JB Mackenzie, Robinhood’s vice chairman and basic supervisor of Futures and Worldwide mentioned in a press release.
Gold subscribers will be capable of commerce futures for as little as $0.50 per contract, whereas non-Gold customers can pay $0.75, undercutting conventional brokerages.
The transfer is anticipated to drive additional curiosity amongst cryptocurrency merchants searching for extra subtle publicity to property like Bitcoin.
Robinhood Legend, in the meantime, will provide superior charting instruments, customizable layouts, and real-time knowledge.
“By speaking with lively merchants, we realized there may be frustration with legacy choices,” Steve Quirk, chief brokerage officer at Robinhood, mentioned within the assertion.
“Transferring forwards and backwards between apps or charting platforms may be cumbersome and time-consuming. We got down to reimagine what a contemporary, intuitively designed lively buying and selling platform ought to seem like,” he added.
The platform will additional assist futures and index choices buying and selling because it continues to roll out by way of 2024.
Each day Debrief Publication
Begin daily with the highest information tales proper now, plus authentic options, a podcast, movies and extra.
