At the Bitcoin Miami Conference 2022, brokerage firm Robinhood’s Chief Product Officer Aparna Chennapragada announced support for the second-layer payment solution Lightning Network. This will allow Robinhood users to send and receive instant BTC transactions for practically 0 fees. Chennapragada said:
We are also working to add the ability to transact on the Bitcoin Lightning Network, so customers can send & receive BTC in seconds, for pennies instead of dollars.
Related Reading | Robinhood’s Newly Launched Cryptocurrency Wallet Attracts 2 Million Users
The announcement was expanded on an official post, Robinhood claims to be working on adding more features to its crypto wallets. The integration with BTC’s Lightning Network is part of a strategy to reduce users’ costs to transact with digital assets and increase interactions with the crypto ecosystem.
Robinhood is yet to reveal a specific date for its Lightning Network integration. However, Chennapragada said the following on the benefits for the users:
Because these (Lightning Network) transactions occur “off-chain,” Lightning network transactions occur in a matter of seconds vs. minutes and for pennies vs. dollars, saving customers time and money. Network fees will vary based on demand in the Bitcoin network.
In addition, the executive said that the integration with this second-layer payment solution has a positive impact on the environment. According to Chennapragada, Lightning Network transactions “reduce the carbon footprint” of the BTC network.
Chennapragada also said that BTC is Robinhood’s most recurring buy cryptocurrency year-to-date (YTD), according to a report by Forbes. The executive didn’t provide precise numbers, but the number one crypto seems to be rising in popularity.
As seen below, Bitcoin is more popular than Apple (APPL) stocks, Ethereum (ETH), Tesla (TSLA), and even meme coin DOGE. This suggests that Robinhood users “love Bitcoin and stacking sats”.
Bitcoin And Crypto Take Over Robinhood
The brokerage firm enables users to purchase equities and digital assets for 0 fees. In that sense, the recurring buying metrics hint at an important level of adoption for this asset class in the United States.
Although it stood behind the number one crypto by market cap, Ethereum is amongst the most popular crypto assets on Robinhood. This trend could strengthen in the coming months.
In addition to a Lightning Network integration, Chennapragada revealed that the platform granted access to a crypto wallet for everyone on their WenWallets waitlist. Over two million people will be able to transact with BTC, ETH, DOGE, and other cryptocurrencies.
Thus, users will be able to have “full access” to their crypto and can move it to external wallets or use it to participate in the crypto ecosystem “by tipping on social media, paying for NFTs and more”. Vlad Tenev, CEO and Co-Founder at Robinhood said:
Our goal is to make Robinhood the most trusted and easiest to use crypto platform. We’re excited to bring even lower costs to our customers by integrating with the Lightning network.
Related Reading | New Crypto Wallet Launched By Robinhood For 1,000 Users To Test
At the time of writing, BTC’s price trades at $43,600 with sideways movement in the last week.
Bitcoinist will be at Bitcoin 2022 Miami in Miami Beach, FL from April 6th through 10th reporting live from the show floor and related events. Check out exclusive coverage from the world’s largest BTC conference here.