On Thursday, the free trading app RobinHood, announced they will introduce free crypto trading as well (until then, they allowed only stock trading). The move got wide media coverage (one of the reasons I didn't write about it at the moment) and it does indeed paint a new map on the crypto chart.
Positioned as an alternative to Coinbase, Robinhood free crypto is basically a direct attack to Coinbase userbase. We're talking about a rumored $1 billion last year, made by Coinbase on 1%-4.5% transaction fees. That's the stake.
It's not yet clear if this positioning is aiming at strengthening RobinHood position's as a trading platform, or as making them the new sugar doll of the crypto trading. And this is what makes the whole move confusing, at least for me. Having stocks and crypto under the same umbrella may feel confusing for their customers. It may create some opportunities, but it will weaken their branding.
In this context, I think it's not at all a coincidence that Coinbase announced very recently the acquisition of an entire development team. Incidentally, I personally know both Crisitan and Mircea, the leaders of the team acquired by Coinbase - they're former Twitter employees and the founders of a great app, called Summify, later acquired by Twitter. So I can tell beforehand that Coinbase is loading their guns, so to speak, and most certainly they have a few added value services in their pipeline.
So, as a PR stunt, I think RobinHood did well. As a strategic move, I don't know. It may be that Coinbase will emerge better from this situation.
Thoughts?
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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more competition is indeed better!
@dragosroua It will be interesting to see how things change over the next couple of months and of course the more competition the better it is for the customers..............
This should be the first step of more to reduce this crazy high fees from Coinbase. Other competitors will come and the prize will level down. Im pretty sure.
If they can get around to fixing their high transaction fees, as well as trading fees, then Coinbase couldn't have asked for better free publicity.
It seems to me that this type of alternatives that emerge strengthens the competition and in the long run the user is the big winner; If the competition is healthy and professional, is welcome. It will be very interesting this fight, please keep us informed. Like always dargosroua, thank you. By the way, I have been using steem.supply and it has been of wonderful help; In addition to allowing me to easily view the management of my account, it is very useful for the review of comments y poder dar respuestas. I recommend it
coinbase be like we love competitions hahah
If they send me tax paperwork at the end of the year, major plus.
Concerned about the security so will only be moving a small amount their way until they have a proven track record.
I'm pumped about this. I've been thinking about moving some profits into stocks to be able to diversify more.
Coinbase has to secure its billion dollars otherwise Robin Hood will steal everything and give it back to the people :P
Robin Hood's back XD
There definitely is significant hype around Robinhood. I would add that Coinbase's transaction fees have been under fire for quite a while now. They are the butt of serious jokes. Considering the platform is not actually necessary unless you are just getting started, Robinhood is well situated. They received over a million registration signups last I checked. That at least indicates that people are interested in competition for Coinbase .
My personal opinion is that we don't need all the exchanges that exist, just one that really gets it right. Obviously, right now we're seeing an explosion of tokens and exchanges but there is also backlash. I expect expansion for a portion of the first half the year followed by sharp contraction in the second half.
People with some time under there belt (or even loses) are starting to wise up to the ICo scams that are out there and protections are in the pipelines for new folks coming to the table in terms of regulations all over the world.
At any rate, another great article - thanks for getting the word out there. People can decide for them self what is the best course of action given their conditions.
I think Coinbase needs some competition.
when crypocurrency about i know. i was surprised. thanks for share about cripto...........@dragosroua
Good style 👌
Thanks for sharing this valuable idea with us.
what did RobinHood on Thursday introduce the garlic crypto
I had know idea of the existence of the robinhood app !
gonna look into it !
Thanks for the sher of the info !
Robinhood is planning on having far more coins than Coinbase (although Coinbase could catch up). One big problem Robinhood is facing is that they aren't offering crypto trading in every U.S. state. This could piss off some current customers if their state isn't included.
good article
thank you for sharing
good article
thank you for sharing