Bitstamp handles Robinhood's UK crypto debut as FCA licensing window nears

Robinhood (HOOD) began allowing eligible UK customers to buy and sell more than 50 cryptocurrencies in its main investing app this week.

Trades are routed via Bitstamp, the exchange it acquired for $200 million last year. British retail investors can already access stocks, ISAs, options, and futures on the platform.

Zero trading fees, but an FX charge still applies

Robinhood’s offer has no trading fees, charges to keep an account, or fees for custody. It charges users for currency conversion.

UK users pay a 0.1% foreign exchange fee, and that climbs to 0.3% on some weekend conversions. The listed coins include Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP, and Hyperliquid (HYPE).

Jordan Sinclair, president of Robinhood UK Ltd and general manager of Bitstamp UK Ltd, said, “A new wave of UK investors sees digital assets as an important part of a diversified portfolio.”

He added that the launch is “another major step toward becoming the all-in-one investment platform for the UK.”

Bitstamp UK is registered as a cryptoasset service provider with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Cryptocurrency held with Bitstamp UK is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or the Financial Ombudsman Service, so the usual consumer safeguards will be unavailable.

Robinhood’s UK arm was added to the FCA register of cryptoasset firms on July 31, confirming it complies with the regulator’s anti-money-laundering rules. The register now has 50+ firms, including Kraken, Ripple, BlackRock, and Revolut, per Cryptopolitan’s earlier reporting.

Crypto revenue slips as prediction markets climb

Robinhood is also turning on Cortex Digests for Crypto in the UK. The generative AI tool reads breaking news, market data, and technical indicators to explain what is moving the price of a particular asset.

Robinhood Chain went live on mainnet on July 1 after testing since February. It is a permissionless Layer 2 solution based on Arbitrum.

Robinhood says the chain has since processed over $18 billion in decentralized exchange (DEX) volume and has exceeded $840 million in total value locked.

CEO Vlad Tenev has said it is the fastest Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible chain to reach 100 million transactions.

In results released July 29, Robinhood said its second-quarter crypto transaction revenue was $100 million, down 38% from a year ago. Over the same stretch, prediction markets took in $156 million, outpacing crypto for the first time.

Total net revenues increased 32% year-over-year to $1.31 billion. Net income of $573 million was up 48% from the second quarter of 2025.

“We delivered record revenues and drove new highs across equity, option, and event contract volumes,” Chief Financial Officer Shiv Verma said at the time.

As Cryptopolitan reported last year, just three months after the acquisition, Bitstamp surpassed Robinhood’s own app in crypto trading volume, reaching $14.4 billion in August compared to Robinhood’s $13.7 billion.