Robinhood Competitor Public Adds Crypto Assets To Its Platform
Robinhood’s competitor Public trading app, announced that they will add crypto assets, such Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Cardano and Dogecoin to their offering, allowing users to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies.
Stock-trading app Public announced on Thursday 7 October 2021 that it will be adding crypto buying and selling in the coming weeks. With the move it joins the likes of Square, Robinhood, and a growing number of other financial apps that are starting to offer cryptocurrencies.
Public, which has raised over $300 million in funding, went live in 2019 with the aim of competing with Robinhood in attracting young and first-time investors. It offers no-commission trading and a mobile-first design, but also includes a prominent social media element that encourages users to share what stocks they buy and sell. In the past it only supported U.S. stocks and ETFs.
According to the announcement, Public will initially start with 10 digital currencies: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Dash, Stellar, Cardano, Zcash, and Dogecoin.
To begin with, Public users will only be able to buy, sell, or hold crypto for now. Going forward, the company says it may offer more features through a wallet, something that pure-play crypto companies like Coinbase have always offered. Robinhood recently started testing their new wallet.
Public COO Stephen Sikes commented:
“We are focused on the investing use case and potential for crypto and its potential to be part of a healthy, diversified, long-term portfolio.”
Public will work with Apex Crypto to manage the back-end operations of its new cryptocurrency operation.
Public’s crypto offering impact
How Public’s entry to crypto will impact the broader crypto market, is still unclear. Robinhood’s entry into crypto has helped to boost the market by attracting many first-time buyers, especially fans of Dogecoin, but Public’s user base is much smaller, and as of February 2021 consisted of 1 million customers. However, this might soon change.
Public’s tactic of using social media to enable users to share their trades with others, could make it a destination for various crypto communities. However, the initial scope of the crypto offering is quite narrow, which could make it harder for the company to challenge more established players in the crypto space.
Public’s director of product, MaryAlexa Divver, believes that the app’s community-based design and education tools would make crypto more approachable. She said:
“For years, the stock market was a complex and intimidating environment — and for many investors, crypto is an even more complex and intimidating concept to navigate.”
