Robinhood targets savvy crypto traders with lower fees, more leverage for XRP, SOL and DOGE futures

Robinhood wants to attract more advanced, high-volume crypto traders in both the U.S. and EU and is unveiling new features to do so, including lower fees and added leverage for altcoin futures, the company said Monday.

Hoping to woo sophisticated traders away from rival exchanges, the stock and crypto trading platform has in the U.S. expanded the number of available fee tiers from three to seven, “offering rates as low as 0.03% for high-volume traders,” Robinhood said in a statement. In the EU, users who want to trade perpetual futures will now have access to new trading pairs for XRP, SOL, DOGE, and SUI with eligible customers able to trade with up to 7x leverage.

“For a very long time Robinhood was kind of categorized for crypto to be a bit more for small-volume traders, or for people who just want some exposure [to] crypto but then they would need to go to a different platform to get more advanced features,” Robinhood's SVP and GM of Crypto Johann Kerbrat told The Block.

Kerbrat admits Robinhood's lack of services and options high-volume traders expect or demand has, in the past, been a competitive disadvantage. But now, with lower fees for U.S. customers and broader futures access in the EU, he believes Robinhood will be positioned to win over more sophisticated traders.

“We've been able to attract a bit more [of] this advanced customer segment [over the past year],” Kerbrat told The Block. “We are continuing to focus on that.”

Since focusing more on servicing cryptocurrency-focused customers in recent years, Robinhood has been able to consistently grow its transaction revenue. In the third quarter of this year, Robinhood reported overall transaction revenue grew 129% year-over-year, “primarily driven by cryptocurrencies revenue of $268 million, up over 300%,” the company said.

Kerbrat said market shocks like October's flash crash are causing traders to migrate from other exchanges to Robinhood in a “flight for safety.”

“The issue with a lot of these platforms is that they're not regulated … and you don't know what happens when something goes wrong," he said.

Other features Robinhood also unveiled on Monday include ETH and SOL staking for New York customers and, starting Dec. 22, U.S. customers will be able to “manually add cost basis for crypto deposits to keep their tax lots, profit & loss, and average cost up to date.”

In the EU, Robinhood will provide access to money market funds by partners like J.P. Morgan. The company also said that soon eligible European customers will be able to choose from more than 1,000 stock tokens.