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Robinhood Opens Cryptocurrency Trading
- kimjongman 9y agoInvested 1,000,000. Now my portfolio down -9%. SMH
- zitterbewegung 9y agoSo now they need more retail crypto currency traders so that hedge funds can figure out how to trade the new crypto currency options and ETFs? If I recall correctly Robinhood was founded to do this originally for stocks (that’s why they have no commission). But, retail stock traders just stopped trading or went to S&P index funds so I guess this is a pivot ?
- farrelljohn 9y agoAs a user of both, I'm excited that Coinbase finally has a competitor. The fees alone on Coinbase, not to mention transfer times, are getting too ridiculous in my opinion.
- marcell 9y ago> transfer times, are getting too ridiculous Then I got good news for you! the RobinHood app's transfer times are infinite, because you can't transfer the coins out :). They never let you hold the bitcoin--all buys/sells take place on their system. I imagine they did this to avoid a lot of challenges that come with being able to transfer coins out.
- bolasanibk 9y agoYou cannot transfer in, but you can transfer out. Refer: https://ibb.co/dHNENc https://ibb.co/dHNENc
- xd1936 9y agoI bought one ETH last fall that Coinbase took away from my account and has been holding hostage from me for 8 months. Apparently my Credit Card expiration date was not correct or something, but they successfully took my money... and show that I have no crypto either. Their support has been a nightmare. I'm really excited to move away from Coinbase to Robinhood as soon as possible.
- artursapek 9y agohttps://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/ paints a pretty ugly picture of Coinbase's support. I'm glad I never had issues but took all my money out this year.
- tenaciousDaniel 9y agoI had a few issues with them and I contacted them in every way I could. No response, ever. Not even after months of trying. Coinbase support just doesn't exist.
- thisisit 9y agoI think we need to see how Robinhood shapes up. AFAIK their customer care isn't great either. And with their estoeric rules on coin transfer this might not go down well.
- farrelljohn 9y agoI agree. Hopefully they turn into a serious competitor, but right now it's a little too early to tell.
- DennisP 9y agoBut keep in mind that Coinbase has millions of customers, so even a small percentage with problems can make a scary-looking subreddit.
- random_rr 9y agoJust wanted to say that I've passed hundreds of thousands of dollars through Coinbase and have always received stellar support. Not everyone hates them :)
- billmalarky 9y agoYou can buy crypto for no-fee on Coinbase by using their integrated GDAX exchange. Simple post a limit buy order instead of a market order for zero fee purchases.
- farrelljohn 9y agoInteresting, wasn't aware you could do that. I'll have to look into it more.
- christophclarke 9y agoso far in the market I feel like Coinbase has acted as one of the only – and certainly most vocal – trustworthy marketplaces. Especially with a concept like cryptocurrency which in and of itself seems a bit "sketchy" to most (especially becuase of its association with black markets), many competing marketplaces dont instill a lot of confidence in users. That may be something as simple as UX/UI or branding, either of which would solidly add Robinhood into the "easy to understand for non-techies" category along with Coinbase.
- greenleafjacob 9y agoWhat about Gemini?
- christophclarke 9y agoDisclaimer: I have not used gemini. On first glance, it seems to fall into the category of "not-intimidating" along with the previously mentioned markets. The point i was trying to illustrate was that there are many laces on the web that skew much more towards LocalBitcoins or the like*. A lot of these kind of sketchy sites have been stomped out in the frenzy that was the Bitcoin Bubble, being replaced by these more legitimate - at least at first glance - sites. As more scandals like Mt. Gox etc arise, however, trust in the currency - and random places on the internet to buy and sell said currency - will drop, leaving only those more "reputable" and known brands like Coinbase and Robinhood behind.
- wmf 9y agoI use Gemini and it works fine. The amount of Coinbase Stockholm Syndrome that I see boggles the mind.
- tgb 9y agoI signed up for it weeks ago but they haven't verified my ID yet and haven't responded to inquiries about how long it will take. It'll be 4 weeks this weekend. Also, their process to link my bank account felt like a scam - they required a huge amount of information that traditional banking institutions don't need to withdraw/transfer. It needed my bank account password(!) and all of my security question answers! Plus copies of my ID.
- sidko 9y agoIf you're a Coinbase user, please don't use Coinbase to buy. The fees are really high. Instead, use GDAX. Your Coinbase account is sufficient to register with GDAX and all your privileges like limits, KYC, etc. is carried over. It supports both Market Orders and Limit Orders. Transfers from GDAX to Coinbase are instantaneous and off-blockchain, so there are no fees. As a bonus fun fact, if you transfer BTC from GDAX to your personal wallet, there is no Bitcoin network fee charged to you. However, if you use Coinbase, you'll end up paying a lot more in fees than you must because Coinbase uses very inefficient fee-estimation systems and still haven't deployed SegWit or batching which would reduce network fee for their customers.
- htormey 9y agoThis is good advise. The problem right now is getting verified on gdax takes a really long time and doesn’t accept government ids like greencards. I have a coinbase account that I can buy with but I am stuck at the verification stage on gdax..
- rock_hard 9y agoWhy don’t you just walk into your next best DMV and get an ID? Doesn’t need to be a driving license...they can easily also just issue a ID.
- htormey 9y agoThat’s what I am doing. I have an appointment booked. I don’t own a car so I had let my old ID expire.
- selectodude 9y agoHow did you buy beer or fly?
- htormey 9y agoWith my greencard or Irish passport.
- sethgecko 9y agoWhat fees ? I have never paid a single cent in fees in coinbase. Buying/selling with limit orders is free in GDAX and they pay the miner's fees themselves when you withdraw. I don't even know how they make money.
- htormey 9y agoCheck the screen before you buy, they display fees: https://ibb.co/eCkthc https://ibb.co/eCkthc Also the base price is more expensive than gdax (also owned by coinbase).
- scrollaway 9y agoUS-only competitor. Not sure how much that helps. It's a start...
- xd1936 9y ago> Starting with California, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, and New Hampshire
- JustAnotherPat 9y agofee-less market orders? Does this provide an API? I guess this offers an alternative to Coinbase for the casual buyer, but looking at gdax, it seems like 99% of volume is bots tracking price at larger exchanges. I'm curious to see how arbitrage will play out with this.
- shitgoose 9y agonot too well. see comment above: "Correct, you can’t sell crypto currencies you didn’t buy in Robinhood. This is listed in the faq they provide."
- htormey 9y agoSomethings to note: -Robinhood is not allowing you to transfer in crypto from outside. -Robinhood does allow you to transfer crypto out but you have to go through extra verification steps. See: https://ibb.co/dHNENc https://ibb.co/dHNENc The listing of so many altcoins in the robinhood app (monero, zcash, etc) plus it’s low fees makes buying on altcoin exchanges that only accept crypto like binance a lot less attractive. No longer will users have to buy $ltc/$eth on coinbase/gdax then transfer to another exchange to buy altcoins. This will have a big impact on the crypto ecosystem. The gauntlet has been thrown down for coinbase. Edit: my bad. I got confused by the app update, Robinhood are just displaying tracking data for alts : https://ibb.co/noPN8H https://ibb.co/noPN8H
- JustAnotherPat 9y agoSo you can't sell your crypto there? Where is all this bitcoin coming from then? Sounds like robinhood is hoping for a huge disparity, so they can dump what they have for better prices.
- htormey 9y agoCorrect, you can’t sell crypto currencies you didn’t buy in Robinhood. This is listed in the faq they provide. https://ibb.co/dHNENc https://ibb.co/dHNENc
- bobcostas55 9y ago>-Robinhood is not allowing you to transfer in crypto from outside. So robinhood is the sole supplier of coins on their exchange? Imagine if NYSE was also running a prop trading operation on the side, talk about conflicts of interest...
- rajacombinator 9y agoDoes robinhood run their own prop group or just sell their order flow to Goldman, etc? What a scummy organization...
- 9y ago
- tntn 9y agoAnd Robinhood becomes even more of a gambling app than it already was. This is not investing. EDIT: Sure, you can call it investing. But I would say it isn't sound investing.
- darkerside 9y agoAgreed with original text. Speculation is not investing.
- dsacco 9y agoSpeculation is investing. The difference in risk is a difference of degree, not category. Hedge funds, venture capitalists, real estate investors, etc. all routinely invest their or their clients’ assets by engaging in speculation. The word you’re looking for is “gambling”, which is a meaningful difference. This isn’t just pedantic - the word “speculate” has a well-established definition in financial jargon, and altering that definition clouds discussions that could benefit from precision. Moreover, it implicitly puts “Real Investing” on a pedestal of responsibility and financial acumen, while dismissing the utility of speculation. Sometimes people try to differentiate between speculation and investing by restricting their definitions to high risk trading and value investing, respectively. But in real world investing, it is extremely common for people to “invest” their money in vehicles which are “speculating” on securities of various types.
- RubberShoes 9y agoNo fees, who cares?
- djtriptych 9y agoYou have some zero-risk investments you'd like to share with HN?
- tntn 9y agoI can certainly name a number of investments with less risk than cryptocurrencies. Namely, basically every traditional investment: stocks, bonds, gold, real estate, ... I don't quite understand why saying that cryptocurrency investment is highly speculative requires me to offer "zero-risk" investments. You know as well as I that none exist.
- tardo99 9y agoThis is definitely good for society.
- marnett 9y agoCan't tell if sarcastic or not..
- Sargos 9y agoIt's the perfect comment. The technophobes will upvote because they think it's sarcastic and an anti-crypto comment and the techies will upvote because it matches their world view of crypto becoming an important part of our society.
- jrs95 9y agoPoe's Law in action. Although, I think it may have played out in the opposite way you expected and resulted in more net downvotes ;)
- matte_black 9y agoI have a feeling this will not end well for many people.
- sagivo 9y agoEDIT: There are 16 coins they track: BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, LTC, QTUM, ETC, XLM, NEO, ZEC, XMR, DASH, BTG, LSK, OMG, DOGE
- berberous 9y agoTheir advertising is pretty appalling, and I say that as a crypto fan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3NL2w4dyJY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3NL2w4dyJY I'm near-term bullish, but mass marketing a crypto brokerage using imagery of astronauts and moons is really irresponsible and will most likely end terribly for many customers.
- kristofferR 9y agoApart from the "texting and trading"-part I don't get why it's appalling at all! Other than that it's a playful and stylish ad about the "to the moon" crypto inside joke.
- andrewla 9y ago"appalling", not "appealing"
- kristofferR 9y agoThanks, fixed :)
- dawnerd 9y agoIt's removed now, damn.
- jackbravo 9y agoMaybe you were right because they seem to have removed the video.
- DiNovi 9y agoI think it's because the marketing is trying to attract current crypto traders and not new people. Could be wrong though
- hippich 9y agoand it is gone..
- deleted 9y ago
- jayzalowitz 9y agoJust got access, posting a review soon.
- ron22 9y agoThanks! Looking forward to hearing early feedback. I'm still in line.
- swarnie_ 9y agoWallstreetbets is doomed...
- wpietri 9y agoI have a question for Bitcoin fans. This is the opening sentence of the abstract from the original Bitcoin paper: "A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution." [1] In the Bitcoin community is that vision basically dead? As here, all of the action seems to be through financial institutions. [1] https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
- aphextron 9y ago>In the Bitcoin community is that vision basically dead? As here, all of the action seems to be through financial institutions. It's never been about the "vision" for anyone but Satoshi. It's just money. That's why this whole thing is just incredibly uninteresting IMO.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- wpietri 9y agoYeah. I was originally pretty open-minded; blockchains are a cool technology, and I like to see people try out-there experiments. But for me this stuff increasingly falls into the same bucket as 3D movies/TV: lots of excitement, cool tech, and a plausible story as to why it could amazing valuable. But in practice, I've seen little value actually demonstrated, so my eyes generally glaze over at this point. That's part of why I'm curious to hear from people who were excited about the initial vision. Maybe there's a pony in there somewhere?
- JohnJamesRambo 9y agoYou probably aren't the intended audience. Ask someone in Zimbabwe or Venezuela how they feel about crypto. Ask a woman in Afghanistan where all her money is considered property of men. Ask a millennial that has no other way out of the class system they were born into. Ask someone tired of governments printing money to finance wars. You'll get more positive answers.
- victormier 9y agoHow I hate articles without links
- chvid 9y agoIf there no fees then how does Robin Hood make money? On the bid ask spread? Do you trade with Robin Hood as a counterpart rather than with other peers on an exchange? (Just to clarify - I am wondering how they make money on crypto currencies not stocks).
- tjpaudio 9y agoRobinhood makes money on it's "gold" service, which is $10/month. For that $10 they float you the cash to immediately reinvest cash after stock sales (rather than waiting 3 days) and they give you $2000 in margin. Really it's pretty genius. They figured out that transaction costs for exchanges are essentially free. With their gold service they are monetizing at least 6% profit margin, i.e. you can think of the $120 yearly as a cost of borrowing $2000, which would boil down to 6% interest rate. Since that money is secured by assets in your account, this is actually a really attractive rate for the risk profile, and, likely scenario, few people are constantly maxed out at $2000. So membership / margin lent is their total profit margin. I bet its well over 10%. Not bad.
- skellera 9y agoI'm not exactly sure how it works but people are able to take much more than $2000 on margin. If you saw on the Robinhood reddit after XIV crashed, there are people who owe over $30,000. Maybe someone else can chime in on how the "gold" currency works in Robinhood to allow that.
- tjpaudio 9y agoPeople doing stupid things with shorts and options.
- encoderer 9y agoI doubt robinhood is acting as a market maker (counterparty), I think they're just widening the spread to cover fees.
- 9y ago
- Taniwha 9y agoUm, are you guys sure that "Robin Hood" is a good name for a cryptocoin startup given past history? the "takes from the rich and gives to the poor" guy? Starts making popcorn ....
- city41 9y agoI feel the term "opens" is a bit generous at this point. I'm in California. I updated the Robinhood app and I do see the crypto stuff. But when I try to use it, it says I'm on a wait list with over 1 million other people.
- pishpash 9y agoRobinhood opens PR move for cryptocurrency trading