Robinhood, the investment and trading platform, has been confirmed as the third largest Bitcoin holder, according to Arkham Intelligence.
The wallet data showed that the platform holds over $3 billion in Bitcoin in a single wallet. Robinhood is only beaten by the Binance and Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchanges when it comes to the $BTC holding ranking.
Over the past three months, Robinhood has transferred 118,300 BTC into the wallet from numerous smaller wallets. The first transactions was made on 8 March 2023 and the last was on 14 July, according to data from BitInfoCharts. All of Robinhood’s holdings are on the Bitcoin mainnet.
These transfers initially sparked community debates over who the owner was, before confirmation from Arkham Intelligence. Speculations ranged from the finance giant BlackRock to the crypto exchange Gemini.
BitInfoCharts’ data showed that Robinhood’s holdings in dollars reached its peak worth of $3.72bn on 14 July. But it has since depreciated with the downturn of Bitcoin’s price. As of 29 August, Robinhood’s BTC holdings are worth $3.08bn.
Robinhood’s exposure to crypto
These extensive BTC holdings from the investment platform reveal Robinhood’s large exposure to the cryptocurrency market, despite having low crypto trading volumes from users.
Robinhood reported its second quarter earnings at the beginning of this month. It revealed that crypto trading revenue was just $31 million in the second quarter, down by 18% from the $38 million in the quarter one.
These figures made up 16% of its total $193m trading revenue. The decline in crypto trading was not alone, it also saw a total 7% decrease in trading revenue across the board.
Robinhood’s $3bn in BTC is not the platform’s only exposure to the crypto market. The company said it has $11.5bn in other crypto assets, which are part of its safeguarding obligations on behalf of users. The firm acts as a crypto custody for all of its users holdings, including Bitcoin.
Implications of Robinhood’s holdings
The largest Bitcoin addresses are mainly linked to cryptocurrency exchanges. Among the top 100 holders are Binance, Bitfinex, OKX, Crypto.com, and others.
However, Robinhood’s introduction into the top three BTC holders could mark a change in the crypto industry. The platform differs to most of the top holders as it is a conventional broker that focuses on stocks and options for its users.
It demonstrates that Bitcoin and the wider crypto landscape could be changed by regular people, rather than large crypto giants.
But with this comes risk for the industry. Robinhood’s user base has built a reputation for speculative trading and risky investments. Its investors have notably funded meme shares like Gamestop, AMC, and Bed Bath & Beyond. These traders also have $2.63bn in Dogecoin holdings.
Some have questioned the usual short-term investment approach from Robinhood investors and whether this is being applied to Bitcoin.
As of 29 August, BTC is seeing an uptick in price. The largest cryptocurrency has gained 3% in the past 24 hours and 4% in the previous seven days.
Who holds the most Bitcoin?
Cryptocurrency exchanges make up many of the top BTC holders. With Robinhood ranked third, Binance and Bitfinex respectively complete the top three Bitcoin owners.
As the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Binance holds that number one spot with 248,597 BTC, which is 1.18% of all Bitcoin. Meanwhile, Bitfinex owns 178,010 BTC or roughly $4.46bn.
Together the top 100 holders of BTC own a total of 13% of the 19.4m circulating supply, Robinhood now makes up 0.56% of this figure.
The investment platform is yet to make a public announcement over Arkham Intelligence’s new data.
