Robinhood saw 9.5 million crypto traders on its platform in Q1

Online brokerage Robinhood saw 9.5 million customers trade crypto on its platform during the first quarter of 2021.

That figure is a whopping nearly 460% more than Robinhood's Q4 2020 number of 1.7 million.

"A lot of customers [are] using us for crypto," said Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev in a video released Thursday. "They come to us for basically our competitive pricing and the user experience."

Tenev further said that Robinhood is "by far the easiest place" to buy crypto, and it offers "incredibly competitive pricing."

"The goal is to give you the most for your money," he said.

The 2021 year has been big for crypto trading platforms, thanks to the current bull market. Earlier this week, Coinbase reported a total of 6.1 million monthly transacting users (MTUs) on its platform for the first quarter of the year.

While Robinhood's user numbers seem higher than Coinbase's, the two companies use different metrics. "We disclose MTUs, Robinhood discloses QTUs [quarterly transacting users]," a Coinbase spokesperson told The Block.

Coinbase defines an MTU as "a retail user who actively or passively transacts in one or more products on our platform at least once during the rolling 28-day period ending on the date of measurement."

The spokesperson further told The Block that comparing the two metrics "is an inaccurate comparison of the two businesses."

Correction: This article has been clarified to reflect that Robinhood and Coinbase do not disclose directly comparable numbers for active traders.