[2019-07-22] Robinhood Raises $323 Million From DST, Sequoia, and Ribbit Capital

[mich]

https://www.coindesk.com/robinhood-raise-323-million-from-dst-sequoia-and-ribbit-capital-in-funding-round?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=coindesk&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=Organic%20

Robinhood, a trading platform for stocks and digital assets, announced a $323 million Series E according to a Reuters’ report.

DST Global, a prominent investor in internet startups led the financing round along with crypto-notables Ribbit Capital and Sequoia.

According to Reuters, the company will direct the capital towards expanding the business and offering new financial services.

“We’ll use the funding to keep pursuing our mission of democratizing finance for all,” a Robinhood representative wrote in a statement.

Since offering crypto assets beginning in January 2018, the Silicon Valley-based startup has rolled out a number of coins and crypto-related trading features. In May, Robinhood launched cryptocurrency trading for seven assets including bitcoin and ethereum in New York.

Notably, the firm added ethereum classic trading one day ahead of Coinbase in August 2018. It offers crypto trading in bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash, ethereum classic, litecoin, and dogecoin to 20 states.

Nearly a year ago, in September, Robinhood started the IPO process in motion. CEO Baiju Bhatt said at the time, “Being a public company I think aligns very closely with our mission as well. And it’s definitely on the horizon, not in the immediate term, but that’s something we are thinking about.”

The platform has gained popularity through offering commission-free trades. It is also looking to add cash management services.

Robinhood’s total valuation topped $7.6 billion with this latest round, which also saw participation from Thrive Capital and NEA.

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[Carlton Banks]

if this sounds tempting: check the details, very carefully


this company might not be letting you buy BTC, but "BTC price exposure" instead. That means they give you USD corresponding to the gain in the BTC price, and you never get a chance to own real Bitcoin. If the trade becomes incredibly profitable for you, they may just dump you out of the market at the price point they choose, then give you an excuse which is covered by their (no doubt too long to read) terms and conditions.

[figmentofmyass]

if this sounds tempting: check the details, very carefully

this company might not be letting you buy BTC, but "BTC price exposure" instead. That means they give you USD corresponding to the gain in the BTC price, and you never get a chance to own real Bitcoin. If the trade becomes incredibly profitable for you, they may just dump you out of the market at the price point they choose, then give you an excuse which is covered by their (no doubt too long to read) terms and conditions.

yeah they don't allow depositing/withdrawing coins. for almost 2 years, they've been "evaluating features to allow you to safely transfer coins to and from robinhood". it's just exposure, like a bucket shop. https://support.robinhood.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001284443-Cryptocurrency-Transfers-and-Deposits

their "no fee" model and slick interface is tempting for noobs i'm sure. i wouldn't touch them.

[Schirer]

if this sounds tempting: check the details, very carefully


this company might not be letting you buy BTC, but "BTC price exposure" instead. That means they give you USD corresponding to the gain in the BTC price, and you never get a chance to own real Bitcoin. If the trade becomes incredibly profitable for you, they may just dump you out of the market at the price point they choose, then give you an excuse which is covered by their (no doubt too long to read) terms and conditions.

The practice of not giving customers real crypto or at very least not allowing any transfers out of their platform seems to be popular choice of " modern" fintech platforms. Europian  "unicorn" Revolut has option to buy some cryptos. IDK but also in Revoluts case I dont believe that they are real coins rather just something tied to crypto price, but they cant be transferred anywhere as well.

The public should be made of aware of these practices more, I am pretty sure that a lot of people are believing that they own crypto when they actually own air.

[BitHodler]

If the trade becomes incredibly profitable for you, they may just dump you out of the market at the price point they choose, then give you an excuse which is covered by their (no doubt too long to read) terms and conditions.

I think that applies to most CFD exchanges. At the end of the day, people get what they deserve-- if you don't go for spot but rely on a central entity to manage the contracts, the risk you talked about should be taken into consideration before trading.

I am however sure that people won't even bother to care about the implications of trading on these platforms where they don't own anything. As always, they first need to see things go wrong in order to care, but then they are too late to fix it.

Also, even when you read the terms and conditions and everything looks fine, they can be changed an hour later without knowing and you can't do anything to dispute it. In other words, you always lose.

[dunfida]

if this sounds tempting: check the details, very carefully


this company might not be letting you buy BTC, but "BTC price exposure" instead. That means they give you USD corresponding to the gain in the BTC price, and you never get a chance to own real Bitcoin. If the trade becomes incredibly profitable for you, they may just dump you out of the market at the price point they choose, then give you an excuse which is covered by their (no doubt too long to read) terms and conditions.

So its still useless on using this up.A broker which do only give or let you trade with btc but paying up you USD? Total BS thing yet there would be lots of option out there and i
dont even consider this or included to an option.
Better to skip out yet we know on how Stocks/Forex Brokers too centralized and manipulative.If they dont like something then they can easily make some alibi.

[Aero Blue]

Like others have said above: You don't actually buy Bitcoin through Robinhood. It's essentially like buying "stock", however you don't own the Bitcoin nor are you able to send / receive it. You are essentially "shorting" Bitcoin through Robinhood. Honestly I would just suggest staying away from Robinhood, they do a lot of shady things.

[1Referee]

So its still useless on using this up.A broker which do only give or let you trade with btc but paying up you USD? Total BS thing yet there would be lots of option out there and i
dont even consider this or included to an option.
Better to skip out yet we know on how Stocks/Forex Brokers too centralized and manipulative.If they dont like something then they can easily make some alibi.

I understand why some people may not like the product offered by platforms such as Robinhood, but to call it useless is not right. It's a useful service to those who don't mind not owning the actual asset, but still want to trade it. It's also a regulated platform, which can't be said about the countless of scum crypto exchanges faking hacks and whatnot.

I do think that at one point Robinhood will allow people to trade the actual assets, but from a business perspective, it's very costly and time consuming to obtain the right licenses. I can understand why they prefer to just provide fiat settlements for now, and who knows, they might already be working on actual crypto trading.

[squatter]

I do think that at one point Robinhood will allow people to trade the actual assets, but from a business perspective, it's very costly and time consuming to obtain the right licenses.

I don't think it's about licensing at all. Robinhood already has a BitLicense and several money transmitter licenses where they operate. They are very well capitalized too. At a $7.6 billion valuation, licensing costs aren't an issue. It's fear about exposure to money laundering risks. They want to insulate their shareholders from regulator scrutiny, and they're betting their target demographic cares more about investment exposure than control of private keys. It sounds like they may never allow cryptocurrency withdrawals:

Our primary concern is preventing the proceeds from illegal activity from being used for transactions on Robinhood Crypto. We’ll be sure to update you if and when this type of transfer becomes available.