After Revolut, American zero-commission dealer Robinhood is now contemplating launching stablecoins, Bloomberg reported. Nonetheless, a Robinhood spokesperson stated the corporate has “no imminent plans to launch this providing” with out dismissing the report.
Robinhood’s Crypto Wager
Though it began as a disruptor within the American inventory brokerage market, Robinhood expanded its choices to crypto and now generates a good portion of its income from providers round digital property. Its crypto transactions income doubled to $81 million within the second quarter of 2024, whereas the entire transaction-based income was $327 million.
Robinhood has been providing cryptocurrencies to its American customers for years, however it expanded to Europe final December. It additional broadened its European crypto providers by launching staking and by circulating the app in a number of native languages.
The most recent report outlined that the American firm’s plans with stablecoins are to problem Tether’s dominance and fill the hole after the rollout of the Markets in Crypto-Belongings Regulation (MiCA) within the European Union.
The primary part of MiCA got here into impact earlier this 12 months, imposing a number of restrictions on the circulation of stablecoins within the bloc. Many crypto firms working within the area have been compelled to delist a number of non-compliant stablecoins to stick to native laws.
The Promise of Stablecoins
Not like Bitcoin and different unstable cryptocurrencies, stablecoins are decentralised digital currencies pegged to both currencies, different mainstream property, or each, making them very secure—therefore the identify ‘stablecoin’. Whereas mainstream monetary establishments typically reject the adoption of cryptos, a lot of them have embraced stablecoins resulting from their benefits in settlements.
Tether dominates the $170 billion stablecoin market; nonetheless, it’s now dropping its dominance. Whereas the market capitalisation of Tether is about $120 billion, the second-largest stablecoin, USDC, has over $36 billion. PayPal’s stablecoin, which was launched final 12 months, additionally surpassed $1 billion in circulation in August however has since dropped by 30 p.c, in line with CoinGecko.
Revolut can be reportedly getting into the stablecoin market, however the firm has but to make any official assertion. A Revolut spokesperson additionally advised Bloomberg that the corporate will “additional develop” its crypto merchandise with out specifying stablecoins.
This text was written by Arnab Shome at www.financemagnates.com.