Robinhood Targets Seasoned Traders With Bitcoin Futures, New Desktop Platform

Robinhood is expanding its reach into the futures market by adding Bitcoin and Ethereum alongside oil and the S&P 500 index as part of its broader strategy to attract seasoned traders. 

A Robinhood spokesperson told Decrypt on Wednesday its futures offerings via its trading app is expected in the “coming months.”

The offerings will include Bitcoin contracts, micro Bitcoin futures, Bitcoin Friday futures, Ethereum futures, and micro Ethereum futures, the spokesperson said.

Micro futures are smaller contracts designed to make futures trading more accessible to retail and smaller-scale investors.

The announcement was made during Robinhood’s first-ever customer conference, HOOD Summit, where the company introduced its new desktop platform, Robinhood Legend. 

The platform is designed specifically for active traders, aiming to offer sophisticated tools and real-time data, including the ability to trade futures and index options directly from the app.

Robinhood is positioning its focus on derivatives as a bid to compete with established players like Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE, which already offer crypto futures.

It comes as the crypto market continues to heat up, with the price of Bitcoin approaching its all-time high, near $73,700.

“With some of the lowest fees in the industry and an elegant mobile interface, there will be no reason to trade futures anywhere else,” JB Mackenzie, Robinhood’s vice president and general manager of Futures and International said in a statement. 

Gold subscribers will be able to trade futures for as low as $0.50 per contract, while non-Gold users will pay $0.75, undercutting traditional brokerages. 

The move is expected to drive further interest among cryptocurrency traders looking for more sophisticated exposure to assets like Bitcoin.

Robinhood Legend, meanwhile, will offer advanced charting tools, customizable layouts, and real-time data.

“By talking with active traders, we realized there is frustration with legacy offerings,” Steve Quirk, chief brokerage officer at Robinhood, said in the statement.

 “Moving back and forth between apps or charting platforms can be cumbersome and time-consuming. We set out to reimagine what a modern, intuitively designed active trading platform should look like,” he added.

The platform will further support futures and index options trading as it continues to roll out through 2024.