Robinhood Adds Crypto Gifting Feature
The trading app is letting customers send as little as $1 of one of seven cryptocurrencies.
Dec 16, 2021 at 8:40 p.m. UTCUpdated May 11, 2023 at 4:08 p.m. UTC
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Popular zero-commission trading app Robinhood is adding a feature so users can gift crypto to friends and family. The feature will be operational for all customers starting Dec. 22, except those in Nevada and Hawaii, where Robinhood Crypto is not available.
- Users can send as little as $1 worth of one of seven cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and dogecoin (DOGE). The gift cards come with special designs and can be accompanied by a personal message. There is no commission for gifting crypto.
- Once sent, the recipient has 14 days to accept the gift. If it’s not accepted, the money reverts back to the sender. If the recipient is a Robinhood customer, they will receive the gift in the app. If they are not, they can sign up for an account and then claim it.
- “Crypto gifting is a great way for our customers to help remove the emotional and economic barrier of their friends and family taking their first step into crypto,” Robinhood Crypto Chief Operating Officer Christine Brown said via email. “It is also an easy and immediate gift for those that are already crypto fans.”
- Commissions from crypto trading have become an increasingly significant source of revenue for Robinhood in recent quarters.
- Bloomberg first reported on the possibility that Robinhood would be offering this feature earlier this week, based on code seen in a beta version of its iPhone app.
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Nelson Wang was CoinDesk's news editor for the East Coast. He holds BTC and ETH above CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000.