California-based financial firm SoFi has added BTC, ETH and LTC trading to its platform SoFi Invest. Crypto trading on SoFi Invest joins the list of previously introduced trading of stocks and exchange-traded funds.
California based financial company SoFi announced it added crypto trading to its fast-growing SoFi Invest platform and that the live trading will begin on next Tuesday. Among the first cryptocurrencies that will be added for trade on SoFi Invest platform are Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC).
As per the announcement, the idea came as a reaction to demand from its network that has more than 800,000 members. Beginning next week, SoFi Invest will become the first platform that offers automated and active investing comprised of stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies, and all through one single app.
The potential to buy digital currencies has allegedly been the most wanted service for the existing SoFi users, and the company’s heads decided that adding that – would be a good move.
This decision was also tackled after numerous other companies from the fintech sector decided to offer services alike. Amid such examples are payment provider Square and investment apps such as Robinhood and eToro.
Except cryptocurrencies, amid SoFi’s app-based investing options are also ETFs and active stock buying as well.
Company’s CEO Anthony Noto explained that he was pretty much intrigued by cryptocurrencies for a long time now so he decided to try and invest in it – mostly Bitcoin. He said:
“I believe in the power of distributed ledger technology. But one of the things about crypto is it’s not always broadly available in a way that’s easy, transparent and fast.”
From the company, they noted that all the cryptocurrencies for their customer’s orders will be secured by the crypto-exchange Coinbase. Basically, there will be no paying commissions but in weeks to come, there are plans for adding a 1.25% fee.
This will be challenging times for such a company if we consider the fact that after the “crypto winter” ended, “crypto spring” gave very much boost to cryptocurrencies but it seems this season is also at its end-stage. This summer, in June, to be precise, BTC went up to more than $13,000, then spent its “vacation” hovering around $10,000, and came “back to work” depressing to $8,500 as it was the case on Tuesday.
From SoFi, they say they see this as a challenge and as a possibility. They say they think of themselves as of the financial company that builds a network between their borrowers and lenders and with these crypto offerings, they are hoping to find assets outside of its core student loan business.
Let’s just mention that their other products, as are loans and mortgages, all failed to get a significant grip so far and the company had to slash their workforce by 7% last year.
Noto, however, seems to be still pretty optimistic when it comes to SoFi Invest, saying internal market data shows it has been adjoining users at a much faster rate than its competitors. Sources familiar with the company said SoFi Invest has over 100,000 customers and is growing quickly. He said:
“Feedback from our members has made it clear that a significant percentage are not only interested in learning more about cryptocurrencies but are also already buying and selling crypto […] We’re very pleased to be adding this new product to SoFi Invest, as access, education, and keeping costs low for our members is at the heart of what we do.”
The company’s goal is to become registered in all 50 US states within a few months, but at first, trading will not be available in New York or New Jersey.
