TronWeekly

Crypto World News

You are here: Home / Archives for Robinhood

Robinhood

Government Grabs $700M In Cash & Assets from FTX Ex-CEO’s Accounts

by

In a shocking turn of events, the United States Federal Prosecutors disclosed the forfeiture of several assets belonging to FTX’s Samuel Bankman-Fried, who is currently facing charges of defrauding customers of FTX.com and lenders to Alameda Research. However, the forfeiture of assets was valued at about $700 million.

According to the court’s document, the assets, which were seized on various dates in January, include a staggering 55,273,469 shares ( $525.5 million) of stock in Robinhood Markets Inc., as well as millions of dollars in cash held in accounts at various financial institutions.

The notice also revealed that the government had seized $20.74 million in United States currency at ED&F Man Capital Markets, Inc., also known as Marex. The funds were held in the name of “Emergent Fidelity Technologies.” Additionally, they seized $49.9 million at Farmington State Bank, “Moonstone Bank,” held in the name of “FTX Digital Markets.”

Furthermore, they also found $5.32 million, $719,359.65, $1,071.83, and $94.57 million in various accounts at Silvergate Bank, all held in the name of “FTX Digital Markets. The government also seized all monies, assets, and funds in the Binance and Binance.us accounts.

However, the forfeiture of these assets is a significant development in the ongoing case against Bankman-Fried, and it remains to be seen what impact it will have on the proceedings. It is clear, however, that the government is taking a tough stance on the alleged offenses described in Counts One through Four and Seven of the indictment.

SBF Of FTX In Trouble

Interestingly, the former billionaire had previously stated that he only had $100,000 remaining in the bank and would now have to reside in his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, when he was released on bail. 

Moreover, as per a report by Insider, it was also revealed that two anonymous sponsors paid a combined total of $700,000 to secure the release of Sam Bankman-Fried from jail. 

According to a court filing by the lawyer of FTX co-founder, one sponsor paid $500,000, and the other paid $200,000, to secure the $250 million bond that allows Bankman-Fried to stay under house arrest at his parent’s home in California while awaiting trial in a federal court in Manhattan.

Related Reading |  Cardano To Enhance Cross-Chain Development with New Cryptographic Primitives

Shiba Inu Integrated In Robinhood’s Newly Launched Web3 Wallet

by

Shiba Inu [SHIB] along with several leading assets of the altcoin troupe has gained entry into Robinhood’s web3 wallet, Johann Kerbrat, the trading firm’s General Manager announced.

The new wallet launched by Robinhood is a smartphone app that facilitates users to swap and transfer crypto, and view owned NFTs and crypto.

For now, the app is being slowly rolled out to over 1 million waitlisted users via an access code, according to the trading firm. It was previously released in beta to just 10,000 waitlisted customers in September.

Initially, the Robinhood Wallet began its journey on Polygon, an Ethereum sidechain, to offer swaps without network fees. It has just recently added support for Ethereum.

Additionally, the Robinhood app listed integrated more than 50 ERC-20 tokens, including Shiba Inu. Customers can now transfer tokens from the Robinhood app and other platforms to their Robinhood Wallet, including COMP, MATIC, SOL, UNI, USDC, and more.

And that made sense given that the Robinhood Wallet was made to compete with the well-known Ethereum wallet application, MetaMask.

“We built this product to solve the challenges that many users had using competing products, which include unintuitive design and high fees,” Kerbrat told in a media statement. “We heard from our beta users that other products in the market are too complicated and difficult to use.”

As for the memecoin Shiba Inu, the token gained much attention when it was listed on the Robinhood app in April of last year, much to the delight of the SHIB community.

Shiba Inu’s Listing On Robinhood Hogged Limelight

It is worthwhile to recall that the Shiba army raised the hype with a Change.org petition to list the dog-themed cryptocurrency on the commission-free investing app that gained nearly 600,000 signatures.

Apart from Robinhood, the token scored several listings across well-known crypto exchanges, for instance, Bitstamp last Oct.

The largest European exchange had launched SHIB trading in other markets prior to its bringing the token to the US. customers.

As reported by TronWeekly, the asset gained further prominence in terms of fiat transactions by being revived by Upbit, a well-known cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea.

The trading platform added the popular token to its list of fiat transactions. 

Here’s Why FTX’s Downfall Leads To Seizure Of Robinhood Shares

by

The arrest of former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried after FTX’s collapse is arguably the largest scandal in the industry’s history. One of the largest financial frauds ever perpetrated has been exposed as a result of the events. Additionally, despite the platform’s best efforts, things continue to remain challenging.

For starters, the Bahamas and FTX U.S. are at odds with one another within the bankruptcy procedures. There is consequently no agreement between the two sides on one of the most important components of the proceedings, and a vital Friday hearing is quickly approaching.

The Bahamas and FTX U.S. reportedly have $3 billion in different recovered assets from the bankruptcy estate. The U.S. arm claims that just $296 million has been recovered, compared to the Bahamian authorities’ allegation of $3.5 billion.

The difference is unusually substantial, and since both parties accuse the other of possible wrongdoing, a resolution isn’t anticipated until Friday. It was also mentioned that Sam Bankman-Fried entered a not-guilty plea during the arraignment session during which the bankruptcy hearings were discussed.

US Authorities To Seize 56M Robinhood Shares Tied To FTX

Local media reported on January 4 that U.S. authorities had informed a judge that they were in the process of seizing assets connected to FTX and its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, including 56 million shares of Robinhood, which were valued at approximately $468 million at the time of the story. The news comes a day after SBF was told by a judge hearing his criminal case not to access or transfer any bitcoin or assets from FTX or Alameda.

Control of the Robinhood shares has been a point of dispute during FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings as numerous investors and creditors seek to be compensated. The assets are subject to claims from FTX creditor Yonathan Ben Shimon, BlockFi, and Bankman-Fried.

On January 3, Bankman-Fried entered a not-guilty plea in federal court to eight charges, including wire fraud, securities fraud, and breaking campaign funding rules. In the past, he has also denied moving money out of Alameda, claiming that after stepping down as CEO in November, he no longer had access to the wallets.

The former FTX CEO has been under house arrest at his parents’ California home since December, but he is permitted to leave the country for authorized purposes, such as to appear in court in New York. Oct. 2 has been established as the day of his trial.

Robinhood Lists Stellar [XLM] And Avalanche [AVAX] Amidst SEC Probe

by

Leading commission-free trading app Robinhood has expanded its crypto offering by adding Stellar [XLM] and Avalanche [AVAX], per a recent announcement. The trading platform’s recent addition is a welcome change to its earlier conservative listing policy toward crypto assets.

A few months back, it added support of Solana [SOL], Shiba Inu [SHIB], and Polygon [MATIC]. followed by Chainlink [LINK] in late June.

Beginning its foray into the crypto space in February 2018, Robinhood initially allowed its users to trade Bitcoin and a small selection of altcoins. Notably, BTC still accounted for over a third of the firm’s crypto-related revenue during the heights of the meme coin frenzy in the first quarter of 2021.

It gained a lot of attention when the world’s acclaimed meme coin Doge went live in July 2018. Following that it refrained from adding any more crypto tokens for almost three years at a time of massive growth in the crypto industry.

Earlier this year, the California-based firm started releasing crypto wallets, enabling users to withdraw crypto from exchanges.

But that could not alleviate the firm’s woes as in late June, shares of Robinhood took a hit due to shrinking revenue and a decline in active users. There were also reports of a possible acquisition by FTX which was denied by the firm.

Robinhood Embroiled In Legal Battles

On top of that, it recently reduced its staff by 23% amidst revenue falling to nearly halved in the second quarter of 2022.

In addition to that, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been investigating the company’s compliance with short-selling rules since October 2021, as per a recent filing.

It also received requests from the SEC in Q2 seeking information related to the firm‘s compliance with trade reporting requirements concerning securities and fractional share lending.

This week, the trading platform’s crypto wing was fined $30 million by the New York State Department of Financial Services, in violation of anti-money-laundering and cybersecurity rules.

In 2020, the agency awarded a penalty of $65 million for misleading its customers about a key source of revenue, called payment for order flow which the firm didn’t admit or deny wrongdoing.

Shiba Inu and Robinhood-a great relationSHIB

by

Shiba Inus, Bitcoin, and other readily available digital assets can now be moved in and out of the well-known trading software Robinhood by users.

Screenshot 70

Early in April, the second-largest meme cryptocurrency, SHIB, was officially added to Robinhood after receiving more than 500,000 votes in a Change.org petition.

Shiba Inu has been added to the list of cryptocurrencies, including Solana (SOL), Polygon (MATIC), and Compound (COMP), making a total of 11 cryptocurrencies accessible.

The cryptocurrency that Robinhood users had sought the most was the canine token. 559,661 people have signed a petition on Change.org calling for the quirky coin to be listed.

Shiba Inu should be listed on the platform, but Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev and other prominent executives have evaded the topic again and time again, stoking rumors among the public. Christine Brown, the business’s chief operations officer for its crypto division, made it plain in November 2021 that the company valued quality over numbers, perhaps as a dig at crypto-native rivals with laxer listing regulations.

In the beginning of 2018, Robinhood added support for cryptocurrency trading, starting with Bitcoin and Ethereum. Later in the same year, it also included Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin Cash, and Dogecoin in the mix. Even though the cryptocurrency industry has advanced significantly since 2018, the corporation had held off until now on launching new coins.

Shiba Inu’s lead developer reveals TREAT

On Wednesday, the principal developer of the widely used meme cryptocurrency SHIB hinted at plans to expand the Shiba Inu ecosystem with a decentralized stablecoin, the TREAT reward token, and a collectible card game for its metaverse.

Shytoshi Kusama, a pseudonymous developer, said in a Medium blog post that “independent developers” are creating a decentralized stablecoin called SHI that “seems to sidestep the pitfalls identified in prior moonshots” — most likely alluding to the multibillion-dollar Terra/luna disaster. The blog post stated that the team hopes to release SHI later in 2022 and expects to provide more details as it approaches its final form.

At the time of writing, Shiba Inu was priced at $0.00001111 with a daily rise of 5.55% according to CoinMarketCap data.

FTX ‘Not Looking For M&A’ With Robinhood

by

Bahamian cryptocurrency exchange FTX was in news lately after reports emerged of a potential takeover of Robinhood Markets. According to people familiar with the matter, FTX was in discussions to acquire Robinhood.

Bloomberg later clarified that the derivatives platform has not extended Robinhood with a buyout proposal and could still decide against pursuing any kind of deal. 

In a follow-up statement to Bloomberg, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried stated that his firm is excited about potentially collaborating with Robinhood but that there were no active merger conversations, as mentioned in previous reports.

“We are excited about Robinhood’s business prospects and potential ways we could partner with them, and I have always been impressed by the business that Vlad and his team have built,” Bankman-Fried said. “That being said there are no active M&A conversations with Robinhood.”

Robinhood declined to comment.

FTX is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world and offers derivatives products as well as spot trading. The firm has become a rival to Coinbase and Binance, though it doesn’t offer its services in the U.S.

FTX On The Move

In recent weeks, Bankman-Fried’s firm signed deals to bail out embattled crypto players. It had lend a helping hand crypto lender BlockFi by providing $250 million credit facility. Alameda, his quantitative trading firm, also committed $500 million in financing to Voyager Digital, a crypto brokerage.

image 11
FTX 'Not Looking For M&A' With Robinhood 3

Despite mass layoffs in the crypto exchange business, SBF-led firm confirmed earlier this month that it not be slashing jobs. Bankman-Fried tweeted on June 6 that his trading platform plans to “keep growing” for the foreseeable future. 

With respect to Robinhood, the popular trading platform that introduced millions of traders to Bitcoin [BTC], Ether [ETH] and Dogecoin [DOGE] came under pressure this year as trading volumes ease from 2021’s frenzy.

Those were times when retail investors were rushing to pump money into shares of so-called meme stocks such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment.

But since its 2021 debut in NASDAQ, the discount brokerage platform has shed roughly three-quarters of its value and its current share price has too depleted form its initial public offering.

That said, Last fall, Robinhood announced it was testing a crypto wallet and revealed that the waitlist for it had reached 1 million customers.

Robinhood Releases Zero-Transaction Fee Crypto Wallet

by

Leading commission-free trading platform Robinhood has released its first Web3 wallet, which would be non-custodial- meaning users will have sole authority over the private keys which are in encrypted storage.

Prior to the announcement, on 16 May, Robinhood send out a teaser that came with a 30-sec video showing a bunch of apes lying around with bored expressions, suddenly coming across a giant screen that appears to transform them into a multi-planetary species.

Netizens were confused as to what the platform was up to.

Finally, on the next day, the exchange’s official Twitter handle along with the CEO of Robinhood Vladimir Tenev announced that it was building a self-custodial wallet. It will be offered as a standalone app but hopes that it will “feature the same simple and accessible design” as its main service.

piggybank wtS7ijvnMpU unsplash
Robinhood Releases Zero-Transaction Fee Crypto Wallet 5

The wallet will extend the ability to store and trade cryptocurrencies, including many not available through the main Robinhood app with “no network fees” and will support NFTs and DeFi [decentralized finance] protocols.

Robinhood’s new non-custodial wallet would compete with Metamask, Coinbase

Even though, custodial wallets, like the one that Robinhood released earlier in 2022, are commonly seen as offering a more user-friendly introduction to the world of crypto, where there’s less risk of losing assets because of mislaid credentials.

But, among crypto enthusiasts, the phrase “not your keys, not your coins” has become a popular criticism of custodial wallets. Proponents argue that one who holds the private key should have full control of their digital assets.

The addition of Robinhood’s new non-custodial wallet might allow it to serve both kinds of customers.

The California-based fintech firm further stated that it’ll be launching its non-custodial wallet in beta “later this summer” and invites anyone interested in trying it out to sign up for its waitlist. A full launch is planned for sometime before the end of the year.

The new app puts Robinhood in a highly competitive market dominated by start-up giant MetaMask with the latest entrant being Coinbase which recently came out with its own self-custody wallet.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong proudly declared his firm’s product as the most downloaded, mobile self-custody wallet in the U.S. in a tweet Monday.

Robinhood ‘scales’ up with two more tokens in its hood

by

Robinhood has included Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) to its list of assets accessible for trading on its platform, according to Barry Silbert, founder of DCG (Grayscale parent).

Among the most prominent publicly-traded Bitcoin funds is Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). Since its launch in 2013, GBTC has grown to handle over $25 billion in net assets and garnered nearly 100 institutional investors.

Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) is fully and effectively invested in ETH, enabling investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency through securities without the hassles of purchasing, storing, and preserving ETH directly.

Screenshot 17

Robinhood’s cowl got bigger with crypto assets

Robinhood revealed the addition of four new crypto assets to its platform in April, including Compound, Polygon, Solana, and Shiba Inu, with more on the way.

Shiba Inu has finally appeared in Robinhood’s trading list, along with four new cryptocurrencies on its platform, after a long wait. Other assets featured include Solana’s SOL, Polygon’s MATIC, and Compound’s COMP, in addition to the meme coin.

All of the mentioned tokens’ prices have risen since the update. Robinhood’s stock rose 5% since the announcement. Other cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Solana, have also made progress.

Shiba Inu supporters rallied for the asset to be featured on the site, even going so far as to start a change petition, which gathered as many as 550,000 signatures in support of the idea.

Before adding the new currencies to its offers, the commission-free trading platform in the United States said it was carefully evaluating all issues such as consumer demand, its listing committee discusses factors such as on-chain analysis, security, and legal and financial variables, among others.

Bitcoin [BTC], ether [ETH], and dogecoin [DOGE] were among the seven cryptocurrencies supported by Robinhood.

According to DogeWhaleAlert, a Twitter account dedicated to DOGE transactions, Robinhood continues to retain Dogecoin on behalf of its consumers.

Robinhood began giving out crypto wallets to the more than two million users on its waiting list the same month it listed SHIB, and it recently finished the rollout to all consumers.

Shiba Inu Listed: Robinhood Made Crypto Twitter Go Woof!

by

Shiba Inu, after a long wait, has finally manifested in Robinhood’s trading list including four new cryptocurrencies on its platform. Besides the meme coin, the other assets listed are Solana’s SOL, Polygon’s MATIC, and Compound’s COMP.

Following the update, the prices of all the listed tokens surge. At press time, shares of Robinhood were up 5% since the announcement. SHIB’s price too spiked 20% on Tuesday, before falling by 11% and is currently trading at $0.00002696 as per Coinmarketcap. Other cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Solana, also advanced. 

The news was received with a lot of fervor as Shiba Inu proponents rallied behind the asset to be listed on the platform, even went to initiate a change petition, gathering as many as 550,000 signatories in favor of the move. 

Image

The U.S.-based commission-free trading platform, at the time, said it was carefully considering all aspects such as customer demand, its listing committee deliberates factors including on-chain analysis, and security, as well as legal and financial variables, among others, before adding the new coins to its offerings.

With regards to today’s addition, Steve Quirk, chief brokerage officer at Robinhood, said in a blog post.

We’re excited to add more choices for our customers as we work to make Robinhood the best place to invest in crypto. As a safety-first company, we have a rigorous framework in place to help us evaluate assets for listing, and we remain committed to providing a safe and educational crypto platform.

Robinhood already offered seven cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin [BTC], ether [ETH], and dogecoin [DOGE].

Investors hodling Shiba Inu – buying the dip

The Shiba Inu ecosystem has been teeming with a lot of positive developments. All the events that culminated in Shiba Inu’s massive intraday rally also include a period of strong accumulation, data from IntoTheBlock shows.

The meme coins have recently topped the ETH whales holdings list. Whalestats data revealed that the overall amount of SHIB owned by the top 1,000 ETH wallets is worth a whopping $1,459,250,776.

The analytics platform noted the address holding SHIB for more than a year increased its balance in the last 30 days. As a result, these “hodlers” now have control over 2.82% of the net SHIB supply in circulation.

Robinhood grabs other stars as it lets go of one

by

Christine Brown, the Robinhood executive in charge of the trading platform’s cryptocurrency ambitions, announced her departure in a tweet on Tuesday. Brown, who worked at the firm for five years, said she would stay in the crypto area, although she didn’t say what venture she would be engaged with. Brown said,

“I’m moving on to start something new. I joined RH when it was under 100 people—before we even offered a crypto product. Watching us grow through IPO and serving more than 22m users has been the greatest professional experience of my life.”

Furthermore, Robinhood Chief Operating Officer Gretchen Howard told local media,

“We’re so grateful to Christine for her contributions over the past five years – from leading our self-clearing initiative to scaling our Crypto team. We’re excited to follow her entrepreneurial journey going forward.”

Robinhood gets closer to its all-around-the-clock dream

Because RH Markets hasn’t been able to grow its user base in recent quarters, the company is doing the next best thing: providing existing consumers even more trading time. Customers will be able to purchase and sell shares from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. Eastern time, according to the investing app.

Customers can trade from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. today on Robinhood. They can now log on after work or other duties, or check their phones first thing in the morning, thanks to the extra hours.

Screenshot 25

The more clients can trade equities around the clock, the more the stock market will mirror the cryptocurrency market, where traders sometimes feel compelled to follow Asian markets after they go to bed, and even on weekends. Robinhood has also advocated for quick transaction settlement, which it claims will reduce client risk. It also has the potential to lower the company’s capital requirements.

After-hours trading was once thought to be too risky for typical investors, but in the last two decades, electronic trading and looser rules have made after-hours trading accessible to a far larger number of investors.

Retail traders should have the same access to services as institutional traders, according to RH, and this new functionality reflects that attitude. At the same time, it appears to contradict RH’s recent shift toward encouraging investors to use tried-and-true investment practices. Although Robinhood has been known for its speed, this may not be a competitive advantage.