Robinhood revenue doubles, fuelled by surge in crypto trading

ROBINHOOD Markets reported revenue that more than doubled as the online-trading firm was buoyed by crypto-market transactions around the US presidential election.

Revenue grew to US$1.01 billion in the quarter, beating Wall Street analyst estimates of US$940.8 million for the three-month period. Cryptocurrency revenue also exceeded expectations, increasing more than 700 per cent to US$358 million.

“We hit the gas on product development in 2024,” said chief executive officer Vlad Tenev on Wednesday (Feb 12). “We see a huge opportunity ahead of us as we work towards enabling anyone, anywhere, to buy, sell or hold any financial asset and conduct any financial transaction through Robinhood.”

Shares of the firm surged 16 per cent at 4.31 pm in late New York trading.

The cryptocurrency-trading fervour was a key factor in Robinhood’s earnings growth during the quarter. Leading up to the November election, President Donald Trump pledged to be a “pro-Bitcoin president”, and thus far has remained true to that statement, including by signing an executive order last month establishing a working group on digital assets. During the fourth quarter, Bitcoin traded above US$100,000 after rallying for a month after voting day.

Robinhood has matured from its early meme-stock days – the Menlo Park, California-based firm now offers retirement products – but continues to push boundaries. Following the launch of its election-focused event contracts, Robinhood dipped a toe into sports-event contracts with the Super Bowl specifically in mind. A day later, the company pulled the offering after disclosing it had received a formal request for a suspension from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The company’s results also mark five sequential quarters of positive net income, with Robinhood reporting earnings of US$916 million, or US$1.01 a share, for the period. Robinhood’s outlook for combined adjusted operating expenses and share-based compensation for this year is US$2 billion to US$2.1 billion.

The firm also has global ambitions for 2025, with plans to launch in Asia with a Singapore home base. On Tuesday, it rolled out US equity-options trading for UK customers. BLOOMBERG