• According to Robinhood Crypto COO and CTO, customers will soon be able to access Defi tools on its platform.

• Christine Brown, Robinhood COO further hinted that they will support Non-Tangible Tokens (NFTs) trading if demand surges.

Since last year, a huge amount of money has been pouring into Decentralized Finance (Defi) protocols as investors seek the returns provided by synthetics protocols, borrowing, lending, and decentralized trading. As of May 2021, Total Value Locked (TVL) into platforms including Maker, Uniswap, Aave, and Compound recorded significant growth from $1 billion to $88 billion. With the rising demand for Defi in the fast-evolving market, Robinhood Crypto has hinted at plans to introduce Defi features to appeal to its customers who may want to move their crypto elsewhere, according to a report. 

Robinhood COO Christine Brown first made this revelation in May when she disclosed that there is a consideration for the introduction of staking, lending, and other Defi tools. Speaking at the Messari Mainnet Conference in New York recently, she again mentioned that the company has considered presenting Defi to its customers. 

We would love to give more opportunities to our customers. That would make [crypto]a utility in their lives and not just an investment asset.

Brown further hinted that they will support Non-Tangible Tokens (NFTs) trading if demand surges. This was supported by Robinhood Crypto CTO Johann Kerbrat, who also confirmed the addition of staking to their Roadmap. 

We can’t tell too much about our roadmap, but something I’m excited about is staking in general. When we are talking about the inflation rising, and savings accounts that are not producing any yield, I think staking could be something very interesting for a lot of people.

Waitlist for Robinhood Crypto wallet to be launched next month

Robinhood Crypto on Wednesday announced that they are launching a waitlist for their newly anticipated crypto wallet next month to ensure that users can move coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum on and off the app by early 2022. This is to open up a broader crypto ecosystem. In addition, this is to attract users who prefer to be consolidated on a single platform, enjoy commission-free trading and other benefits. These integrations will put Robinhood in the same category as Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken.

According to Brown, the transfer option of the app will still get people to trade on the platform as it is still cheaper compared to trading on Ethereum-based decentralized exchanges. 

A lot of [customers]haven’t transacted on-chain. So the idea of managing their keys is something that maybe they don’t want to do. And so this gives them the best of both worlds… And if they do say, ‘not your keys, not your coins,’ then we support them transferring off for sure.

She added that wallets are the first step for this massive upgrade. 

It’s taking something that was one dimensional—you buy it, you hold, you sell—hopefully, the price goes up in that time—to something multidimensional. You can use your coins to do things in the crypto ecosystem.