Robinhood Pushes Further Into Crypto Space With Bitstamp Acquisition

Editor’s note: We’ve been telling CoinSnacks readers since December not to overlook Robinhood (HOOD) as a crypto player. The stock is up more than 90% since this post. This week’s news highlights the point.

Robinhood (HOOD) has announced an agreement to acquire Bitstamp, a UK-based crypto exchange, for ~$200 million in cash.

Founded in 2011, Bitstamp is the world's longest-actively running crypto exchange.

The company currently holds more than 50 active licenses globally, giving Robinhood much deeper access to Europe where they launched commission-free crypto trading last year.

The acquisition will also allow Robinhood to serve an institutional crypto client base, putting it in direct competition with Coinbase and Kraken.

The deal, anticipated to be finalized in the first half of 2025, coincides with a period of rapid growth for Robinhood's crypto business, which is also navigating regulatory challenges. Only a month ago, Robinhood disclosed that it had received a Wells Notice from the SEC over alleged violations of securities laws.

Kraken Considers Raising Over $100 Million In Pre-IPO Round

The anticipation surrounding a potential Kraken IPO has intensified after Bloomberg reported that the exchange is seeking to raise north of $100 million in a pre-IPO round by the end of 2024.

If Kraken, the second-largest crypto exchange in the US, proceeds with the plan, the company could finally go public in 2025.

Bloomberg highlighted that Kraken is considering this “final” funding round after receiving significant interest from potential investors.

The funding round would also allow Kraken to boost its board with “marquee” players to help ensure a smooth and successful public offering.

It’s been a long time coming: Kraken’s ambitions to go public date back to 2021, when the company first publicly discussed an IPO. But those plans were quickly put on pause after the collapse of FTX and the bear market that followed suit.

Fast forward to today, over three years later, the odds of Kraken going public soon are back in their favor buoyed by rising prices nearing all-time highs and a shifting political landscape.

As we’ve previously covered, the exchange has been quietly ramping up its offerings and strategic initiatives since the last cycle. This includes the acquisition of Tradestation’s crypto arm, expansions into the European market, and the debut of its institutional platform and mobile wallet.

Keeping Track
Kraken remains at the top of our long list of crypto companies hoping to go public in the US soon, with Circle being the other big candidate.

Here at CoinSnacks, you can keep track of the progress of each potential public offering in crypto on our continuously-running IPO Tracker.

With regulation loosening and crypto prices rising, the window for crypto companies to go public is beginning to open. As soon as next year, it’s possible that we could see a rush of new crypto listings hitting the public markets.

Galaxy Digital Showcases RWAs

Galaxy Digital (GLXY), led by Mike Novogratz, made headlines again this week after issuing a multi-million dollar loan to the founder of Animoca Brands, Yat Siu. The loan was collateralized by a 300-plus-year-old violin that was auctioned for $9 million just last year.

So… what’s a rare violin and loan between two billionaires got to do with crypto?

It’s because the violin was tokenized. Both the physical violin and its digital representation in the form of a NFT are being used as collateral.

The Benefits of RWA Tokenization:

In Galaxy Digital’s case, it was a good publicity move to showcase the value of Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization, a conversion service that the company hopes will one day become a real revenue driver.

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