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Jason Warnick, the chief financial officer of Robinhood Company, states that users still prefer trading Bitcoin directly in the spot market despite the surprising successes they achieved in the fourth quarter of 2023. The chief financial officer of the company indicates that the platform’s cryptocurrency trading is largely focused on spot Bitcoin instead of exchange-traded funds, also known as ETFs.
In an earnings call related to the fourth quarter of 2023, Jason Warnick explained that only 5% of crypto trading by users happened through Bitcoin ETFs, while the remaining 95% preferred direct spot Bitcoin trading. Warnick stated, “We generally see this as a contribution.”
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“Some traders turned to ETFs by abandoning spot trading, but this was an exceptional case,” he said. “We don’t perceive it as a kind of ‘cannibalism’, we just consider it as a contribution.”
Jason Warnick declared a portion of the profit from Bitcoin ETFs traded on their platform came from Robinhood investors who added ETFs to their retirement accounts. The Robinhood platform offers all ten US spot Bitcoin ETFs that started trading on January 11.
The new spot Bitcoin ETF list has surpassed $10 billion in assets under management since it was introduced, and Bitcoin’s price has risen by 6.5% since then, exceeding $50,000 briefly on Monday, February 12; it was the highest point in more than two years.
Robinhood’s Crypto Revenues Higher Than Expected
Robinhood demonstrated a robust performance in crypto transaction revenues, particularly in the fourth quarter of 2023. The company recorded an increase of over 10% in its stock prices, exceeding Wall Street analysts’ estimates.
For the entire 2023, Robinhood’s earnings increased by 37% from the previous year to $1.87 billion. Fourth-quarter revenue earnings increased by 24% from the previous year to $471 million, exceeding analyst estimates by over 3%.
The company attributed the growth in total fourth-quarter revenues mainly to a 10% increase in crypto trading revenues. During this period, crypto trading income increased by 10% compared to the previous year, reaching $43 million.
In the earnings presentation, Robinhood noted that its conceptual crypto trading volume in the fourth quarter increased by 89% from the previous quarter due to the increase in the number of customers and overall trading volumes.
On February 13, Robinhood’s shares closed around 1.5%, but in after-hours trading, they soared over $13, rising by 10.5%.
Since the beginning of the year, Robinhood’s share price has experienced a drop of more than 4%, compared to the almost 4.5% increase of the S&P 500. Specifically, there has been a drop of more than 78% from its all-time high of $55 on August 6, 2021. This decline was a significant factor adversely affecting the company’s stock performance.