• Robinhood’s chief brokerage officer said that its crypto first policy remains its best bet for global expansion.
• Robinhood, however, has been facing major challenges in dealing with regulators.

After a poor performance at Wall street over the last six months, the zero-commission trading app Robinhood is now moving towards a crypto-first policy. This decision comes as Robinhood is planning for a global market expansion.

Steve Quirk, the company’s chief brokerage officer confirmed shifting its focus on digital assets. For a long time, Robinhood has been mulling for a crypto push. However, last year the company faced a lot of customer flak and regulatory scrutiny after the GameStop saga in early 2021. Speaking to CNBC on Wednesday, February 9, Quirk said:

The company is doing a lot of exploration about finding compliant ways to expand [the list of supported crypto assets]. We also have aspirations to take this brand global and we would do so crypto first.

As Robinhood plans for a crypto push, it will have to compete with very strong market players like Coinbase. However, Quirk remains confident about his “crypto first” policy saying that “the path for [Robinhood] to go global and have the most traction is probably through crypto”.

However, Quirk said that it has taken regulatory aspects into consideration. The Robinhood executive is confident that the strong demand for “digital assets” will be the easiest way for the company to go global.

Robinhood and its crypto push

As said, Robinhood was the center of the controversy amid the heavy pump of stocks like Gamestop and AMC Entertainment. The company has been reeling under pressure. however, it seems that it is getting good traction in crypto.

Last August 2021, Robinhood said that 60 percent of its funded accounts have traded in digital assets. The company has been registering hundred of millions of dollars in transaction-based revenue.

However, the company has been going through problems from all ends. In November 2021, Robinhood faced a major data breach wherein the emails of its 5 million customers were exposed.

Read More: Robinhood suffers data breach with 5 million customer emails exposed

Last year in July 2021, Robinhood went public with a $32 billion valuation. Even though Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) stock managed quick 100% gains in the first few days of listing, the stock has been moving sideways since then.

The Robinhood stock has been trading at a 66 percent discount from its listing and an 80 percent discount from its all-time high. It seems that crypto remains the company’s best bet for global expansion, said Quirk. Furthermore, Robinhood has reiterated its stand on crypto during its earning report. It noted:

Robinhood has set aggressive goals to start opening its crypto platform up to customers internationally in 2022. The company believes in the immense potential of the crypto economy and sees a big opportunity in serving customers across the globe.