Robinhood is about to launch a non-custodial crypto wallet and is delving into web3.
Robinhood is about to dive a little deeper into web3. Shortly after the announcement that Sam Bankman-Fried had acquired a 7.6% stake in the company, its CEO Vlad Tenev announced the imminent arrival of the “web3 crypto wallet” during the Permissionless conference in Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
Robinhood will launch a crypto wallet without jail time
This new wallet will be a non-custodial web3 wallet similar to what Metamask offers. In fact, users will have access to lending, staking, crop farming and, of course, the exchange of fungible and non-fungible tokens. In addition, Robinhood clarified that all this will be done “without network costs”, but it is not yet known which blockchains will be supported.
Robinhood’s crypto CTO Johann Kerbrath told Decrypt that this new wallet aims to replicate the free-to-play model of the company’s trademark. That being said, with Ethereum’s high gas fees, it’s hard to see how Robinhood can achieve this. Johann Kerbrath explained that “linking with liquidity partners to get the best price”would be part of the solution, but didn’t elaborate. In another interview, he told CoinDesk that the team is “building this product as efficiently as a browser.”The wallet should become the “missing element to access the web3 space”.
and dives a bit into web3
Robinhood is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2022, with betas expected as early as this summer. No one knows if Ethereum’s transition to Proof-of-Stake could affect the launch date and the promised approach to pro bono payments.
Robinhood has had a rather difficult year, with share prices on the stock market fluctuating wildly after the company’s July 2021 IPO. The pivot to crypto may be a reaction to Sam Bankman-Fried’s stake, though Robinhood has focused more on equities so far. However, the trading app has recently added SHIB to the selection of available coins.
The CTO said: “A lot of people avoid web3 because of the cost. web3 has been around for a long time, and today we are building it for the long term. It’s a bet on the future.”