Robinhood won’t follow Coinbase and buy crypto with company cash — yet

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—by Protos Staff
Robinhood's finance chief recently noted there's no "compelling reasons strategically" to buy sizable amounts of crypto with company cash.

Robinhood won’t be buying crypto with company cash any time soon, and it won’t be adding to its stable of tradable assets, either.

The Menlo Park-trading firm currently lists just seven cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ether, and Dogecoin.

“It’s not lost on us that our customers and others would like to see us add more coins,” said Robinhood finance chief Jason Warnick at the Wall Street Journal’s virtual CFO Network Summit this week (via Fox Business).

“We’re a highly regulated company in a highly regulated industry, and we think it’s important that we get a bit more clarity from regulators.”

Warnick’s comments came when he was asked if Robinhood planned to list meme token Shiba Inu.

Robinhood has ‘no reason’ to put its own cash into crypto

Last August, top US crypto exchange Coinbase achieved board approval to add up to $500 million worth of crypto to its balance sheet. 

Coinbase chief exec Brian Armstrong also pledged to invest 10% of company profits into digital assets moving forward.

But apparently, Robinhood has no plans to give in to public demand and follow Armstrong’s lead.

Coinbase stock is fairing better than Robinhood — but not by much.

[Read more: Robinhood share price and revenues tank as Dogecoin popularity wanes]

“There aren’t compelling reasons strategically for our business to put any meaningful amount of our corporate cash into cryptocurrencies,” said Warnick.

Regardless, it’s not clear whether Robinhood posts enough consistent profit to even consider adding crypto to its balance sheet.

Robinhood operated at a net loss of $2.1 billion in Q3 last year, while Coinbase reported $406 in non-GAAP profit.

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