“At Robinhood, we believe that crypto is more than just an asset class. By offering the same low cost and great design that people have come to expect from Robinhood, our Web 3 wallet will make it easier for everyone to hold their own keys and experience all the opportunities that the open financial system has to offer,” Vlad Tenev, the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, commented in a press release) announcing the new wallet.
Trade and swap crypto with no network fees. A web3 wallet from us. Get early access: https://t.co/qonXj80BEB pic.twitter.com/qLjByPA4ty
— Robinhood (@RobinhoodApp) May 17, 2022
For now, Robinhood customers can join this non-custodial wallet by signing up for its waitlist. Its Beta program will be available later this summer, and Robinhood noted that the wallet is set to be deployed fully by the end of the year.
With its new wallet, the company is leaning further into crypto and will be competing with existing non-custodial wallets. Previously, people would need to transfer their assets out of Robinhood to a wallet like Metamask in order to access DeFi. Now, people will be able to stay within the Robinhood ecosystem with more freedom in terms of crypto interaction.
Over the last few years, Robinhood has worked hard to become the go-to platform for crypto investors, regardless of the space they're interested in. The project began trading cryptocurrencies in 2018, but without the ability to transfer tokens to third-party wallets. In 2021, the project announced plans to allow external withdrawals, allowing users to use Robinhood to enter the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.