Robinhood Markets Inc.’s cryptocurrency trading revenue fell in the fourth quarter and missed Wall Street expectations, marking a second-consecutive quarter-over-quarter decline in the wake of the meme coin frenzy early last year.
Crypto revenue was US$48 million ($64.9 million), a 6% decline from the prior quarter, missing the US$55 million average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Still, it increased 304% from a year ago. Shares of Robinhood fell about 12% in post-market trading after the firm reported total revenue that was also short of Wall Street estimates.
Crypto offerings have been a core strategy of Robinhood, and its zero-commission transactions have helped it enlist new users, making it a major competitor to cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase Global Inc. During the second quarter last year, Robinhood brought in US$233 million in crypto-trading revenue, as retail investors plowed into digital assets like Bitcoin. In the third quarter, crypto revenue -- 40% of which was made up from Dogecoin trading -- plunged to US$51 million.
The crypto numbers look “a little bit light compared to last quarter -- so huge growth year-over-year, but down from last quarter, perhaps because they don’t have Shiba Inu,” said Julie Chariell, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “That’s the one coin that they’re missing, everyone’s waiting for. But the key part to that now is what happens in the first quarter and we know it’s looking ugly so far this year.”
Robinhood intends to add more digital coins on its platform and has been engaging with regulators, but executives didn’t commit to adding Shiba Inu on its platform when asked during earnings call.
Robinhood, which launched an initial version of its Crypto Wallets, said it’s preparing for a full launch of the wallets in first quarter. It also targets offering crypto platform to customers internationally this year.
See also: Bitcoin resumes advance, rekindles US$100,000 milestone optimism
Photo: Bloomberg
