Trading App Robinhood Markets Adds USDC to Its Crypto Lineup

Online broker Robinhood Markets (HOOD) added Circle’s USDC stablecoin to its crypto offerings for retail traders Tuesday.

The company added in a tweet the offering will also be available on Wednesday for transfer on Polygon and Ethereum networks.

“The inclusion of USDC on Robinhood is a clear signal that the platform is setting its sights abroad where the usage of stablecoins is more popular and useful for investors,” Bryan Hernandez, president and co-founder of decentralized-finance (DeFi) app Structure, told CoinDesk.

“Theoretically, the addition of USDC could allow Robinhood users to send payments for a wide variety of purposes, just as you’d imagine Venmo or PayPal doing so for their users,” he said.

Hernandez added that he sees more utility for global users because the domestic market already contains money transmitters.

“Because the U.S. market is saturated with well-established money transmitters, stablecoins are less necessary for the peer-to-peer transaction benefits international users would experience,” he said.

The move comes as other global crypto exchanges including Binance and WazirX have said they will delist USDC in support of other stablecoins.

Robinhood added Uniswap’s UNI token to its offerings in July.

On Tuesday, Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood's chief technology officer, said on Twitter that he will be elaborating on the addition of USDC and what may come next during the Converge22 conference in San Francisco next week.

Read more: Uniswap Token Rallies After Being Added to Robinhood’s Crypto Trading Menu