Online brokerage Robinhood saw more crypto traders on its platform than Coinbase in the first quarter of 2021.
Coinbase saw a total of 6.1 million active traders on its platform in the quarter. Meanwhile, Robinhood saw 9.5 million customers trade crypto on its app during Q1. That is a whopping nearly 460% increase than its Q4 2020 number of 1.7 million.
“A lot of customers using us for crypto,” said Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev in a video released Thursday. “They come to us for basically our competitive pricing and the user experience.”
Tenev further said that Robinhood is “by far the easiest place” to buy crypto and it offers “incredibly competitive pricing.”
“The goal is to give you the most for your money,” said Tenev.
Another reason for Robinhood being more popular for crypto could be because millions of people already use it for stock trading.
While Robinhood saw more crypto traders, its volume isn’t known. Coinbase, on the other hand, had an estimated trading volume of $335 billion in Q1.
Christine Brown, head of operations at Robinhood Crypto, said 2021 has been a “big” year for the firm as crypto has continued to grow in popularity.
“Since the beginning of the year, Robinhood’s crypto team has already more than tripled, and we’re continuing to grow,” she said. “We’ve hired amazing people across engineering, security, and compliance to help us scale and build crypto withdrawals and deposits quickly and safely.”
Robinhood currently allows crypto buying, selling, and holding. In February, the firm announced that it would also enable crypto deposits and withdrawals.
Robinhood Crypto was launched in 2018 and currently offers trading in seven coins: Bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), bitcoin SV (BSV), ether (ETH), ether classic (ETC), dogecoin (DOGE), and litecoin (LTC).
Coinbase is set to list on Nasdaq on April 14; meanwhile, Robinhood has also reportedly chosen Nasdaq for its planned public debut.
Update: This story has been updated with additional information.
