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Here's the 3 key reasons why Robinhood acquired Bitstamp for $200M
The trading platform wants to "move even faster" among a few core areas
Jacquelyn Melinek
June 11, 2024
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Robinhood’s making a big bet for global crypto expansion
Last week, the trading-focused platform Robinhood announced it agreed to buy Bitstamp, a crypto exchange, for $200 million in cash. That decision was a result of “many, many reasons,” Johann Kerbrat, general manager of crypto at Robinhood, said on the Talking Tokens podcast. (Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube.)
But the three key points were to expedite international expansion, bring a globally scaled crypto exchange to the company and introduce the first institutional business to Robinhood. “We’ve said in the past…International expansion has been one of our focuses.”
Bitstamp, a thirteen-year-old exchange with 50 active licenses and registrations globally, brings Robinhood up to speed alongside crypto-focused exchanges like Coinbase and Binance that have also expanded their global presence in recent years.
This isn’t Robinhood’s first step into this space, though. It launched its EU crypto trading services in December 2023 and its staking services in May. The Bitstamp acqusition aims to help it “move even faster” and bring customers across the EU, UK, Asia and also the US into Robinhood.
On the institutional side, it’s important for Robinhood to have a reliable exchange and that relationship in place, without needing to “start from scratch,” Kerbrat said. “[Robinhood will] enter the institutional space with an active and highly trusted business.”
Check out the next section for more details and the full episode.
The latest Talking Tokens podcast 🎙️
For this week’s Tuesday episode, I sat down with Johann Kerbrat, general manager of crypto at Robinhood.
We discuss the trading platform’s $200 million acquisition of Bitstamp, how the platform’s crypto strategy is evolving globally and what role it wants to play in the bigger crypto ecosystem.
Talking Tokens episodes are released on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at 6AM EST or YouTube at 10AM EST every Tuesday and Thursday. Listen in!
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