Robinhood announced Wednesday that it intends to bring cryptocurrency trading to the United Kingdom while also widening its perpetual futures lineup in Europe to cover assets beyond digital currencies.
Here is a breakdown of the company’s latest moves:
Eligible investors in Europe will now have access to perpetual futures contracts tied to commodities, exchange-traded funds, and foreign exchange markets. Those offerings include gold, silver, crude oil, and the euro-dollar currency pair, with leverage of up to 10 times and around-the-clock trading availability.
Perpetual futures — often called “perps” — are futures contracts that carry no expiration date. They have attracted growing interest in the United States since the CFTC gave the green light in May for their trading on domestic exchanges.
In a separate announcement, Robinhood said it plans to roll out crypto trading for customers in the UK as part of its broader goal of building an all-in-one investing platform for that region.
The company also introduced Robinhood Earn, a new lending product that allows eligible U.S. customers to lend their dollar-backed stablecoin, known as USDG, through a self-custody wallet. The product offers an estimated annualized return of 7%.
Robinhood Earn also comes with insurance coverage for certain losses resulting from cyberattacks or smart-contract exploits, with that protection arranged through Lloyd’s of London and RELM.
Additionally, Robinhood announced it is entering the Canadian market following its acquisition of WonderFi and confirmed it has received a capital markets services licence in Singapore.
The trading platform currently serves more than 28 million customers in 38 countries and has been actively expanding into additional financial services in recent years in an effort to become less dependent on trading activity alone.
The company reported weaker-than-expected transaction revenue for the first quarter, a result tied in part to volatility in the cryptocurrency market.
