On Wednesday, February 15th, Robinhood published its operating data for January. While many of the provided numbers showed a notable increase from the last month of 2022, the broker’s cryptocurrency trading volume was perhaps the biggest standout being up a staggering 95%.
Robinhood January Crypto Trading Volume Up 95%
This Wednesday, the online broker Robinhood revealed its operating data for January 2023. The information showed increased numbers in most categories with, for example, Assets Under Custody rising 20% to $74.7 billion. Notional Trading Volumes also saw an increase across the board.
Equity volumes amounted to $46 billion, a 19% increase, and options contracts were also up by 10%. Still, perhaps the most impressive figure of the report came from cryptocurrency trading volumes. After suffering a sharp decline in the wake of the FTX bankruptcy in November 2022, they were up 95% in January 2023 and stood at $3.7 billion. The broker has been offering cryptocurrency trading since 2018.
While significantly below its all-time highs, Robinhood shares have been doing fairly well since the start of the year. Year-to-date, HOOD is up nearly 32%. However, the company’s shares also went through a decline after the Q4 results were published, despite an initial slight upturn, as it had missed most of the estimates.
Robinhood also already found itself a target of an embarrassing if short hack. In late January, the broker’s Twitter account was compromised and used to promote a fraudulent token offering for just under an hour.
Early 2023 Brings a Renewed Interest in Cryptocurrencies
While multiple firms with major connections to digital assets delivered disappointing results for the final quarter of 2022, their upcoming reports might just tell a different story. Robinhood’s cryptocurrency trading volume increase is very much in line with a market rally, and renewed interest that the markets saw in January.
Furthermore, while a set of aggressive actions undertaken by US regulators in early February created a fear-and-doubt-filled atmosphere for several days, the sentiment has by this Wednesday once again turned bullish—at least for the time being—as Bitcoin reached a six-month high and rose above $24,000.
Still, the ongoing disruption caused by the collapse of FTX—most recently felt in the form of Genesis’ bankruptcy—and the heightened regulatory scrutiny still pose a threat to a possible longer-running 2023 rally. Just in the last seven days, the SEC managed to cast doubt on the future of crypto staking when it announced an enforcement action against and a settlement with Kraken, and disrupt the stablecoin market with a Wells notice sent to BUSD-issuer Paxos.
This article originally appeared on The Tokenist
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