Today, I received a surprising alert on my phone from Robinhood, they are planning to launch a web3 DeFi wallet. There is soon to be a new competitor to Metamask, Coinbase Wallet, & the Crypto.com DeFi Wallet on the block.
As Robinhood themselves summarized:
"Robinhood is stepping into the world of web3 and DeFi. We’re building a web3 crypto wallet (a brand new app) that will allow you to easily: trade and swap crypto with no network fees, easily access DeFi protocols to earn yield, store NFTs and connect to NFT marketplaces, and connect to decentralized applications (Dapps). You can now sign up for early access to the web3 wallet."
I know community opinion on Robinhood is mixed at best but I am personally ecstatic at the news. Robinhood is the biggest retail trading app on the market and this type of development is only going to further expose, familiarize, and comfort the average investor with the concept of investing in cryptocurrency. Robinhood frankly also has the most user friendly finance app which I've used (compared to Webull, Stash, Public) and I look forward to a DeFi wallet that can simplify commonly overcomplicated interfaces on existing DeFi wallets. I want a wallet that I could reasonably use while half-awake. Investing should always be done with a sound mind but the more complicated an interface you're dealing with, the more likely that you'll make a stupid decision on the app.
Although the Robinhood 'no fees' claim is only partially true, they do offer better fees on crypto that I've seen on any other exchange. Essentially the fees on Robinhood are 'caked' into the prices so instead of paying $100 for a stock valued at $100, you'll pay around $101 for a stock valued at $100 and Robinhood will pocket that $1. These fees, however, are lower than most competitors and as such I do trust that the Robinhood wallet will have highly competitive trading fees. I am also excited that the app will finally earn yields as the thing currently preventing me from purchasing crypto on Robinhood is that all I can do is Hodl it and not generate any form of yield. Holding stocks gives you dividends, holding crypto gives you nothing.
Personally I don't particularly care about NFTs but it seems like NFT functionality is caked into the concept of a good wallet at this point so I'm not expecting anything crazy from Robinhoods NFT system but also nothing sub-par.
As this news just dropped, there's honestly no information on the wallet past the ability to register yourself on the waitlist to receive an early download. The only other tidbit which may be connected to this announcement is the fact that on last Friday (5/13/22). Sam Bankman-Fried, sole director of the FTX exchange and majority owner of Emergent used his entity of Emergent to purchase a 7.6% stake in Robinhood and it is now the third largest shareholder in the company. Seems a bit more than coincidental that a crypto investor put a large amount of money into Robinhood mere days before they announce a DeFi web 3 wallet on the horizon. Regardless, I will keep everyone updated if the situation changes and excitedly await my turn in line to get a first look at this new wallet.
If you want to get yourself in line for the Robinhood DeFi wallet, use this link here and help me skip the line a little bit
https://robinhood.com/web3-wallet/6f4adde8
Also, if you want to make an account for Robinhood to start buying and selling low commission stocks/crypto to prepare for the launch of their DeFi wallet (which I'm sure will have some sort of integration) feel free to use my referral link for the Robinhood exchange and help both of us get a free cut of a stock. If you do plan on stocking up on some of that Robinhood crypto, their current list on the app (which I'm sure will expand when the wallet drops) includes Bitcoin, Etherium, Dogecoin, Solana, Shiba Inu, Polygon, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Etherium Classic, Bitcoin SV, and Compound.
https://join.robinhood.com/christs-3f1f43
