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Robinhood launches its self-custody ‘Robinhood Wallet' for crypto traders
(Kitco News) - The American financial service company Robinhood announced the beta launch of Robinhood Wallet, a standalone app on the Apple Store that allows users to trade and swap cryptos with no network fees.
According to Robinhood its wallet is a self-custody, Web3 wallet that will initially support the Polygon network as its first blockchain, with plans to add support for additional networks in the future.
During the beta launch the new iOS wallet is being made available to the first 10,000 users who joined the waitlist in May 2022.
Johann Kerbrat, chief technology officer of Robinhood Crypto, called the launch of the Robinhood Wallet beta “a significant step forward in our journey to make Robinhood the most trusted and simple crypto platform for customers.”
“Like we did with the stock market, Robinhood Wallet strips away some of the complexities of web3 and DeFi to make crypto more accessible to everyone,” Kerbrat said.
The brokerage firm's choice of Polygon as its preferred network is not surprising after the platform added support for on-chain deposits and withdrawals for Polygon’s MATIC token back in August.
The Polygon network also offers a greater level of scalability, faster transaction times and lower fees than many competing networks, along with having a potent developer ecosystem.
The beta release will allow users to perform common tasks such as trading, rewards, storage and DApp-based yield farming of cryptocurrencies. Future versions of the wallet will include support for a nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace that is currently in development.
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With the launch of the new app, Robinhood is looking to replicate with crypto what it did with stock trading.
During the beta testing period, Circle's USDC stablecoin will be the primary fiat-representative token on the app, and there will also be a rewards center where users can accrue rewards, including some initial MATIC tokens for creating the wallet.
The Robinhood Wallet also offers access to a larger selection of cryptos than are currently available on Robinhood’s main platform, with 25 to 30 tokens available during the beta according to Kerbrat. Once the trial period is complete, the firm will also add support for NFTs.
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