Crypto trading on Robinhood surges 75% amid bitcoin hype while stock activity goes flat
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- Crypto trading volumes on Robinhood jumped 75% last month, a regulatory filing showed.
- It's a turnaround from the third quarter, when crypto trading revenues fell 55% on the platform.
- On Tuesday, bitcoin briefly topped $44,000, the highest since April 2022.
Cryptocurrency trading volumes exploded last month on Robinhood, according to a regulatory filing by the investment platform.
Crypto notional trading volumes jumped roughly 75% in November from October's levels, the company said Monday. Meanwhile, equity and options contracts trading roughly remained the same.
That came as the price of bitcoin jumped nearly 30% in October alone. It has since surged even further, and on Tuesday, bitcoin briefly topped $44,000, the highest since April 2022. In the year to date, it is up more than 160%.
"I think you're starting to see retail investors wake up to certain segments of the rally. I think crypto activity — you're seeing kind of a groundswell," Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev told Yahoo Finance, adding that interest in crypto has also benefited from the regulatory crackdown out of actors such as Binance.
The swell in crypto volumes is a stark turnabout from recent months, after Robinhood reported a 55% decrease in cryptocurrency revenues last quarter.
Users' sudden interest in crypto investment comes at a time of renewed attention on the apex token, amid expectations that bitcoin spot ETFs could soon get SEC approval.
Bullish analysts have predicted that spot ETFs could bring fresh capital into the crypto space, opening the doors for retail and traditional investors. Others have said less supply in bitcoin in the coming years could drive the price as high as $150,000.
The enthusiasm has also broadened out to other cryptocurrencies. For instance, private Greyscale funds tracking crypto such as solana, livepeer, and chainlink tokens are trading at sizable premiums, the Financial Times reported.
Despite Robinhood's flat stock-trading activity, equity markets also saw remarkable upside through November. The S&P 500 rallied around 9% as investors piled back in risk-on assets, on bets that the Federal Reserve has finished hiking interest rates.