Free Crypto Trading App Robinhood Files S-1 Paperwork With SEC to Go Public

Millennial-friendly trading platform Robinhood is moving forward with its plans to go public.

The company has confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Robinhood's IPO Plans

Robinhood announced in a statement that it had confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the SEC relating to the proposed public offering of its common stock.

The number of shares to be offered and the proposed offering's price range are yet to be determined, the company stated.

Robinhood was valued at about $12 billion in a 2020 financing round that saw the company receive $200 million from investors. Popular VCs like New York-based D1 Partners, Sequoia, participated in the round.

Whether Robinhood would go the traditional IPO route or is opting for a direct listing remains unknown. According to Bloomberg, the popular stock and crypto brokerage app has already chosen Nasdaq for its listing.

Robinhood’s IPO filing comes after a controversy surrounding the company’s handling of the GameStop frenzy. Robinhood subsequently lifted GameStop restrictions claiming the suspension were imposed due to regulatory requirements.

Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and founded in 2013, Robinhood's rise has been remarkable. The platform gained 13 million users at the end of 2020 and added another six million cryptocurrency traders in the first two months of 2021.

Robinhood's Recruitment And Crypto Wallet Plans

The Chief Executive Officer of Robinhood, Vlad Tenev, had earlier disclosed how the company plans to beef up its cryptocurrency recruitment this year amid an explosion of interest in trading cryptos.

In a bid to ramp up crypto staff hiring, the investment platform is partnering with a recruiting firm, Binc, for an undisclosed sum. This would add more than 80 employees to help Robinhood recruit talent.

The U.S. online brokerage is actively hiring across its U.S. offices and remote locations.

In a ‘fireside chat' on YouTube, Tenev said that the company is also working on developing a crypto wallet. In addition to the wallet development, the trading platform also plans to list more cryptocurrencies.

Currently, the Robinhood app allows customers to buy and sell Bitcoin BTC 2.18% Bitcoin / USD BTCUSD $ 28,413.21
$619.412.18% Volume 17.7 b Change $619.41 Open $28,413.21 Circulating 19.33 m Market Cap 549.34 b 1 y SEC Commissioner says NFTs Might Fall Within Their Jurisdiction, Gensler Hires Senate Aid for Crypto Policy 1 y A Possible Crypto Recovery Moving Into New Year, Risk-on Sentiments Send The Stock Market to Another Record High 1 y Bitcoin and Ether Dump More Going Into Year-End, ETH Killers Showing Great Momentum , Bitcoin Cash BCH 2.79% Bitcoin Cash / USD BCHUSD $ 124.66
$3.482.79% Volume 119.5 m Change $3.48 Open $124.66 Circulating 19.35 m Market Cap 2.41 b 1 y SBI Holdings to Launch Japan’s First Crypto Fund; Including BTC, ETH, DOT, LINK, LTC, XRP & BCH 1 y Ledger Announces Integration with FTX and Coinbase, Launching Crypto Life Debit Card 1 y Invesco Launches Physically-backed Bitcoin ETPs, WisdomTree Lists Three Crypto-Basket ETPs in Europe , Bitcoin SV BSV 0.94% Bitcoin SV / USD BSVUSD $ 35.79
$0.340.94% Volume 34.09 m Change $0.34 Open $35.79 Circulating 19.27 m Market Cap 689.48 m 1 y “We're Not Going to Talk About” SHIB Listing, says COO as Robinhood’s Crypto Wallet Waitlist Jumps to 1.6 Million 1 y Robinhood Trading App Rolls Out “Dollar Cost Averaging” for Crypto Investments 1 y BSV Network 'Enduring A Series of Block-Reorganisation Attacks' Sees Hash Rate Crashing Over 52% , Ethereum ETH 2.08% Ethereum / USD ETHUSD $ 1,825.20
$37.962.08% Volume 8.75 b Change $37.96 Open $1,825.20 Circulating 120.46 m Market Cap 219.86 b 1 y Coinbase Predicts Substantial Growth of Newer L1 Chains & Institutionalization of Regulated DeFi 1 y A Possible Crypto Recovery Moving Into New Year, Risk-on Sentiments Send The Stock Market to Another Record High 1 y The Sandbox Game Is Migrating to Ethereum Sidechain Polygon and Launching A DAO in 2022 , Ethereum Classic ETC 2.03% Ethereum Classic / USD ETCUSD $ 20.58
$0.422.03% Volume 134.46 m Change $0.42 Open $20.58 Circulating 140.23 m Market Cap 2.89 b 1 y “We're Not Going to Talk About” SHIB Listing, says COO as Robinhood’s Crypto Wallet Waitlist Jumps to 1.6 Million 1 y Robinhood Reveals Security Breach that Left 7 Million Customers Data Exposed 1 y Grayscale Adds Avalanche (AVAX) and Terra (LUNA) to its Investment Product Consideration List , Litecoin LTC 5.30% Litecoin / USD LTCUSD $ 93.10
$4.935.30% Volume 594.14 m Change $4.93 Open $93.10 Circulating 72.61 m Market Cap 6.76 b 1 y Bitcoin and Ether Breaks Trend With Outflows While Altcoins Continue to See Inflows 1 y SBI Holdings to Launch Japan’s First Crypto Fund; Including BTC, ETH, DOT, LINK, LTC, XRP & BCH 1 y Ledger Announces Integration with FTX and Coinbase, Launching Crypto Life Debit Card , and Dogecoin DOGE 3.92% Dogecoin / USD DOGEUSD $ 0.08
$0.003.92% Volume 465.67 m Change $0.00 Open $0.08 Circulating 138.76 b Market Cap 10.68 b 1 y Ray Dalio says, Bitcoin Is An “Alternative Money” While NFTs An Investment; May Also Become A Type of Money 1 y Dogecoin Foundation Working with Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik for DOGE Staking Proposal 1 y DOGE Sucking Liquidity from Crypto Market Again, Tesla to Accept Dogecoin Again For Merch .

Meanwhile, Robinhood's primary competitor, eToro, is going public through a SPAC merger. The merger will value the company at $10 billion and is backed by SoftBank. In the crypto space, there have been a few other IPO announcements, starting with Coinbase, which will go public later this year, and then Kraken and Gemini have expressed interest.