Crypto exchanges FTX US and Bitstamp USA are working on offering stock trading, which would be a further blow to Robinhood as its share price slumps to new lows.
FTX US President Brett Harrison tweeted on Tuesday that the crypto exchange is “hard at work on stocks,” commenting that a launch would be coming in “a couple months.”
We’re hard at work on stocks! Features we’re planning for day 1:
-Live BBO and historical candles
-Stock screening/search functionality
-Basic fundamentals (market cap, P/E ratio, dividend yield)
-Portfolio performance tracking, order/trade detailsWhat else should we have? pic.twitter.com/q2bTpsfuna
— Brett Harrison (@Brett_FTXUS) January 11, 2022
This isn’t FTX’s first dalliance with stocks. Back in Oct. 2020, the global arm of the crypto exchange launched a feature to allow its customers to access fractionalized trading in tokenized stocks.
And Bitstamp USA CEO Robert Zagotta said in a Jan 14 interview with Bloomberg that the exchange is considering entering stocks, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and crypto derivatives.
Offering low cost equities trading would allow the two crypto exchanges to attract a similar user base of meme stock style investors as Robinhood, which offers both crypto and stock trading.
The additional competition is unlikely to be welcomed by Robinhood ($HOOD) at this point. With meme stock and crypto trading cooling down, the American financial services company closed at an all-time low of $15.30 on Jan 13.
Related: Kraken CEO reverses $100K BTC 2021 forecast: Crypto winter now possible
Robinhood is approaching the market from the opposite direction to the two exchanges, beginning with stocks and moving into crypto. It’s been adding new features to its crypto service for some time, and plans to roll out the beta version of its crypto wallet feature this month. This will enable users to withdraw cryptocurrency from the platform.
$HOOD closes at an all time low.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) January 13, 2022
One potential bright spot for Robinhood is interest from the Shiba Inu community. Shiba Inu Coin ($SHIB) has been pumping on rumors that it could be listed for trading on Robinhood as early as next month. The altcoin rebounded by nearly 30% in three days. However CEO Vlad Tenev has denied such reports on multiple occasions.
