Robinhood’s $200 million Bitstamp deal takes it past retail buying and selling

Robinhood has formally closed its $200 million acquisition of Bitstamp, bringing some of the global’s longest-running cryptocurrency exchanges into its fold and signaling a strategic shift past retail buying and selling and into the arena of establishments.

The all-cash deal, first introduced remaining yr, provides Robinhood a direct global footprint — together with greater than 50 lively crypto licenses throughout Europe, the United Kingdom, and Asia — in addition to a longtime institutional shopper base, one thing the retail buying and selling app has lengthy lacked.

For Robinhood, the deal marks a transfer into deeper waters: institutional crypto flows, lending and staking infrastructure, and white-label “crypto-as-a-service,” merchandise constructed for hedge finances, fintechs, and registered funding advisors — all of which require powerful techniques for custody, worth discovery, and agreement.

“I wouldn’t call it necessarily a pivot,” Robinhood Crypto General Manager Johann Kerbrat advised CNBC. “For us, it’s combining the strengths of the two businesses. We are one of the largest retail marketplaces in the U.S. … They have products that we don’t have, like order books, crypto as a service, advanced API and lending and staking and thanks to that, we will be able to get into this space, not starting from scratch.”

Robinhood, which introduced crypto buying and selling in 2018 and helped pressure the meme-coin mania of 2021, has in contemporary months labored to rebrand itself as a significant participant within the subsequent segment of virtual asset finance — one that is more and more outlined by means of law, institutional capital, and cross-border festival.

“Now that we’re starting to see the regulatory clarity coming from Congress and the administration, more and more institutions are going to want to get into crypto,” added Kerbrat.

The Bitstamp deal provides it a head get started.

Founded in 2011, Bitstamp is understood for its deep liquidity, compliant recognition, and minimalist method. While now not flashy, Bitstamp has weathered more than one marketplace cycles and constructed longstanding relationships with institutional companions throughout Europe and Asia — one thing Robinhood plans to leverage.

Earlier this month, Robinhood additionally bought Canadian crypto company WonderFi to faucet into Canada’s established person base.

“Robinhood is a marketplace. We don’t match orders. And with Bitstamp, we will have a robust product offering that will really allow us to build more on the active trader and advanced trader side of things.,” Kerbrat stated.

“That’s going to be a big step for us and really diversify our crypto business, not just from retail in the U.S. — to a global offering,” he stated.

It additionally provides Robinhood a regulatory on-ramp to Europe, the place crypto laws are clearer in comparison to the fragmented method within the U.S.

The corporate showed it’ll handle Bitstamp’s present interfaces and operations for now, whilst exploring deeper integration over the years. Bitstamp is already getting used at the back of the scenes for good order routing thru Robinhood’s institutional internet platform, Robinhood Ledger.

“The flow we’re sending to Bitstamp will make Bitstamp more lively — and attract more institutions,” Kerbrat stated.

The acquisition closes at a vital second for Robinhood.

The fintech participant has persisted to amplify aggressively, together with checklist new tokens, launching staking, and teasing global product rollouts. Bitstamp’s regulatory monitor report and licensing portfolio might be offering a measure of insulation as Robinhood pushes additional into new global markets.

Kerbrat did not rule out the potential for different acquisitions.

“If we can find a way to accelerate by at least 18 months or two years — and we have a lot of great reason to believe this is a great acquisition — it’s something that we’ll definitely look at,” he stated.