On Monday, Robinhood Financial announced that it would launch ethereum classic (ETC) on its trading platform — making it the sixth digital currency it has listed. This news comes one day before Coinbase is to add ETC to its exchange.
At $5.6 billion, Robinhood’s newly launched crypto-trading platform is growing. On Monday, it announced that it would begin supporting ethereum classic, offering ETC [coin_price coin=ethereum-classic] trading for customers living in one of the US eligible states.
You can now invest in Ethereum Classic on Robinhood Crypto, commission-free. https://t.co/PAidMUpbYq
— Robinhood (@RobinhoodApp) August 6, 2018
Robinhood has been expanding its services on a state-by-state basis, gathering the necessary licensing to operate in each region. Earlier this year, the company started in four states; California, Massachusetts, Missouri, and Montana, later expanding to 19 with Georgia and Iowa joining most recently.
The trading platform has continued to increase the number of supported cryptocurrencies available to users. At present, Robinhood traders can work in Bitcoin [coin_price], Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin, and now Ethereum Classic.
The platform is also capable of tracking market data for 10 other cryptocurrencies — which suggests eventual integration into the platform. For now, users simply need to add these digital assets, which include Zcash, Stellar, and Moreno, to their watchlist.
A Rush To Beat Coinbase
The efforts made by Robinhood to include ETC come in light of Coinbase’s similar announcements. Last week, the Coinbase stated it was in the final stages of testing for the new cryptocurrency, reporting that ETC would be made available on August 7th.
However, the announcement outlined that this new listing would only be accessible for users with Coinbase Pro and Coinbase Prime accounts and that ETC trading would not go into effect immediately.
The company’s website explains:
We intend to allow 24–48 hours of transfers through Pro/Prime before opening the markets. In accordance with our Trading Rules, all ETC books will open in post-only for a minimum of 10 mins. Once sufficient liquidity is established, trading will then be enabled on Pro and Prime
The smaller, commission-free Robinhood has tried to maintain its competitive edge by introducing ETC trading before its competitor. It is important that the company continues to garner interest from crypto-buyers and traders.
In June, when Coinbase went public with its plans to support ETC, the value of ethereum classic rose 23% in less than 24 hours. At the time, it was unknown if the company would honor ETC credits to those who did not withdraw their tokens before Ethereum’s hardfork. Now the company has officially stated only those with Pro and Prime accounts will receive a credit since ethereum was not supported until after the fork.
What are your thoughts on Robinhood’s launch of ETC? Let us know in the comments below!
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