Arkham Intelligence has disclosed that a crypto wallet associated with Robinhood possesses Ethereum (ETH) valued at over $2.5 billion.
In a tweet shared on Wednesday, Arkham highlighted their discovery of Robinhood as the holder of the 5th most substantial ETH wallet, containing a staggering 1.5 million ETH, equivalent to $2.54 billion.
Earlier on, the intelligence agency had pinpointed Robinhood as the entity behind the third biggest Bitcoin (BTC) wallet, which is home to 118,300 BTC, valued at approximately $3 billion.
Their tweet emphasized, “We’ve determined [Robinhood] to be the custodian of the 5th largest ETH wallet, with holdings amounting to $2.54 [billion] in ETH.”
In addition to Ethereum, the said wallet contains over 100 different ERC-20 tokens, amassing a total value of about $177.1 million.
With these figures in tow, Robinhood’s cumulative value of all Ethereum-related tokens exceeds $2.71 billion.
In a subsequent interaction, when a user questioned if the funds were directly owned by Robinhood or represented its customers’ assets, Arkham clarified that the wallet serves as a custodial holding for its users’ assets.
Arkham further explained, “Per SEC regulations, cryptocurrency balances on RH must have a 1:1 backing,” indicating that Robinhood is required to have equivalent reserves for the crypto assets its users possess.
The Robinhood wallet, while significant, is overshadowed by four Ethereum addresses with even larger holdings. These major holders comprise the Ethereum beacon deposit contract, a contract for wrapped Ether, and wallets associated with renowned cryptocurrency exchanges, Kraken and Binance.
Dominating this list is the beacon deposit contract, which has an astounding balance of over 29 million ETH, valued at approximately $49.7 billion. Remarkably, this single address represents a quarter of the total Ethereum supply.
As per the on-chain analytics firm’s report, the wallet linked with Robinhood houses assets like 122,076 BTC, a massive 34.1 trillion Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens (equivalent to $277.8 million), 4.9 million Chainlink (LINK) tokens (valued around $29.7 million), and 2.6 million Avalanche (AVAX) tokens (approximated at $29.6 million).
It’s essential to clarify a misinformation incident: Decrypt, a crypto news platform, had erroneously reported, due to an AI-generated script error, that Robinhood’s wallet contained a staggering $4.3 trillion in ETH. In reality, the figure stands at $2.5 billion.
Robinhood Wallet Expands Support for More Cryptos
Robinhood declared on Wednesday its plans to broaden the capabilities of its wallet product by introducing support for Bitcoin, Dogecoin (DOGE), and in-app Ethereum swaps.
In a press release, Robinhood articulated that it will be integrating “custodial services as well as sending and receiving functionalities for Bitcoin and Dogecoin”. This will complement the existing provision that enables Ethereum swaps within the application.
During its inaugural phase, this expanded service will be available to a specific group of users, granting them the ability to swap more than 200 tokens. However, Robinhood has aspirations to make this feature universally accessible to its larger user base in the subsequent stages.
Shedding light on the strategic move, Johann Kerbrat, the General Manager of Robinhood Crypto, remarked, “In crafting the Robinhood Wallet, we have eliminated numerous intricacies inherent to DeFi and the expansive Web3 realm. This approach considerably mitigates the challenges and entry obstacles, making the crypto world more approachable for the general populace.”
While Robinhood has been actively expanding its footprint in the cryptocurrency domain, it has faced challenges in sustaining robust trading volumes.
This past June, a startling decline in crypto trading was announced by Robinhood, showing a 68% drop in comparison to the previous year. As per the firm’s operational data for the month, crypto trading stood at nearly $2.1 billion in May 2023, which is a stark contrast to the $6.6 billion recorded in the same month of the preceding year.
Furthermore, in its Q2 2023 financial statement, Robinhood disclosed that its revenue from cryptocurrency trading amounted to $31 million. This depicts an 18% decline from the preceding quarter, which had revenues of $38 million from the same source.
Adding to the evolving narrative, recent reports have also indicated a termination of Robinhood’s crypto-centric partnership with Jump Trading, a prominent market maker. Speculations suggest that the regulatory climate in the US concerning cryptocurrency might have played a role in this decision.
