Robinhood hits new low as FTX.US and Bitstamp USA move into stocks

Crypto exchanges FTX.US and Bitstamp USA are working on offering stock trading, which would be a further blow to Robinhood as its share price slumps to new lows.

FTX.US president Brett Harrison tweeted on Tuesday that the crypto exchange is “hard at work on stocks,” commenting that a launch would be coming in “a couple months.”

This isn’t FTX’s first dalliance with stocks. Back in October 2020, the global arm of the crypto exchange launched a feature to allow its customers to access fractionalized trading in tokenized stocks.

And Bitstamp USA CEO Robert Zagotta said in a Friday interview with Bloomberg that the exchange is considering entering stocks, nonfungible tokens and crypto derivatives.

Offering low-cost equities trading would allow the two crypto exchanges to attract a similar user base of meme stock-style investors as Robinhood, which offers both crypto and stock trading.

The additional competition is unlikely to be welcomed by Robinhood at this point. With meme stock and crypto trading cooling down, the American financial services company closed at an all-time low of $15.30 on Thursday.

Related: Kraken CEO reverses $100K BTC 2021 forecast: Crypto winter now possible

Robinhood is approaching the market from the opposite direction to the two exchanges, beginning with stocks and moving into crypto. It’s been adding new features to its crypto service for some time and plans to roll out the beta version of its crypto wallet feature this month, which will enable users to withdraw cryptocurrency from the platform.

One potential bright spot for Robinhood is interest from the Shiba Inu community. Shiba Inu (SHIB) has been pumping on rumors that it could be listed for trading on Robinhood as early as next month. The altcoin rebounded by nearly 30% in three days. However, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has denied such reports on multiple occasions.

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