Robinhood Lists First Stablecoin in Circle's USDC to Expand Offerings

Popular stock trading app Robinhood has listed Circle's USD Coin (USDC), the first stablecoin available to retail traders on its platform. While Robinhood is yet to issue a full statement on the addition of USDC to its roster of tradeable assets, a tweet does clarify that USDC will be available for transfer via both Polygon and Ethereum on the platform starting on September 21. It is worth noting that although USDC is the first stablecoin that Robinhood will support as a tradable asset, the company also provides real-time data for two other stablecoins — Tether aka USDT and DAI.

Robinhood first opened the door to trading crypto on its platform in 2018 and has over time been steadily adding tokens. Currently, there are 17 different cryptocurrencies users can trade using Robinhood's app with the addition of USDC.

The move shows more bolstering growth for Circle's USDC, which has sought out the number one spot over Tether's USDT – the longtime dominant stablecoin. The narrative has been driven by an ideology that Tether's account management is less transparent and straightforward than USD Coins.

Robinhood, meanwhile, has been on a bit of an expansion spree in terms of its portfolio. The platform began listing Cardano's native cryptocurrency, ADA, on September 1 while Shiba Inu was also added earlier this year, something the SHIB army had been anticipating for some time. The crypto investing app also announced support for transferring MATIC on the Polygon network on top of the Ethereum network on August 31.

In a recent earnings call, CEO Vlad Tenev said that the company is working on expanding its crypto listings, noting that “customers tell us they want us to introduce more coins." That said, Robinhood is yet to declare a stablecoins strategy and it is not yet known if the crypto exchange will add more stablecoins in the near future.

It is also worth recalling that despite its growing support for cryptocurrency, the company is also downsizing. It laid off a significant portion of its staff this summer due to a downturn in the crypto market.