Robinhood has brought in more than $453 million in order flow payments this year as it eyes a potential IPO

Millennial-friendly crypto and stock brokerage Robinhood has raked in close to half a billion dollars in order flow payments since the beginning of the year, according to data compiled by The Block. 

The firm is obligated to share how much it brings in from the practice of routing its retail order flow to large trading firms to match internally within their systems. The method, known as payment for order flow (PFOF), netted Robinhood $182.7 million in the third quarter of 2020. That's a slight 1.49% increase over the second quarter, in which the firm brought in $180 million.

In total, the firm has generated $453 million from these payments.

The steady growth in PFOF to Robinhood reflects a surge in trading activity among retail market participants. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, 2020 has been marked by growing interest among retail investors in trading stocks and options. Brokerages like E*Trade saw more than 260,000 accounts open in March alone, "more than any full year on record."

As for Robinhood, the number of user positions in S&P500 stocks soared from around 4 million positions at the beginning of the year to more than 14 million as of late June. 

The spike in interest has also given Robinhood some operational headaches, including a string of outages earlier this year and mounting questions around whether it is exposing unsophisticated clients to risk via complex options, as reported by The New York Times. Robinhood has said it is working on addressing those problems, including "improving" its options product. 

Those issues haven't scared off investors, however.

Robinhood has continued to raise funds from Market Street throughout 2020, and expanded the size of its most recent funding round to $660 million in September. Investors included Andreessen Horowitz, Ribbit Capital, and Sequoia. 

The Series G closed ahead of reports that Robinhood is now eyeing a potential initial public offering, according to Bloomberg News. Citing individuals familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that the firm is looking to potentially tap into the public markets as soon as the first quarter of 2021.