3 Minutes, by Reuters (Reuters) – A typical soldier in the army of retail traders upending Wall Street is a 31-year-old who checks their smartphone seven times a day to examine the assets in their first-ever brokerage account, which may or may not contain a significant amount of cryptocurrency in addition to stocks. This artwork from July 1, 2021 shows a 3D-printed Robinhood logo. Dado Ruvic/REUTERS Those broad strokes defining retail traders are among the nuggets contained in the July 1 filing by online brokerage firm Robinhood Markets, which is aiming for an initial public offering for over $40 billion. The company included information about its more than 18 million customers in its file, as well as some of the possible hazards of investing in the company, which grew its headcount from 289 in December 2018 to more than 2,100 in March this year as retail trading took off. Individual traders gathered in online forums such as Reddit’s WallStreetBets have helped fuel wild rides in shares of video game retailer GameStop, movie theater operator AMC Entertainment Holdings, and a plethora of other so-called meme stocks, according to the thorough analysis of Robinhood’s user base. The following are some of the highlights from the filing: — The median age of clients on the company’s platform was 31 as of March 31, 2021. — From January 1, 2015, to March 31, 2021, more than half of those who funded accounts on the site claimed it was their first brokerage account. — In 2020, customers used the app roughly seven times each day on average, a year marked by violent market swings in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak. — According to the company, nearly half of all new retail-funded accounts launched in the United States between 2016 and 2021 were formed on Robinhood. — At the conclusion of the first quarter of 2021, Robinhood’s assets under custody were $65 billion in equities, $2 billion in options, $11.6 billion in cryptocurrencies, and $7.6 billion in cash. — Cryptocurrencies have been really beneficial to the organization. Over 9.5 million consumers traded nearly $88 billion in bitcoin on Robinhood in the first quarter. Between March 31, 2020 and the end of the first quarter of this year, crypto assets grew 23-fold. — Dogecoin transactions account for a significant amount of Robinhood’s recent net revenue growth, according to the business. According to Coingecko.com, the price of Dogecoin, which has been endorsed by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has increased by more than 10,000 percent in the last year. “Our company, financial condition, and results of operations could be negatively affected if demand for Dogecoin transactions drops and is not replaced by fresh demand for other cryptocurrencies accessible for trade on our platform,” according to the petition. — The majority of Robinhood clients are buy-and-hold investors, according to the business, echoing a common mantra on WallStreetBets, where users push each other to keep onto their favorite joke stocks despite sky-high volatility. David Randall and Sinead Carew contributed reporting; Ira Iosebashvili contributed further reporting; and Stephen Coates edited the piece./n
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