Robinhood's UK crypto debut uses Bitstamp for trading. The FCA's full regime arrives in 2027, but consumer safeguards are absent now.
Robinhood (HOOD) started letting eligible UK customers buy and sell more than 50 cryptocurrencies in its main investing app this week. Trades go through Bitstamp, the exchange it bought for $200 million last year.
British retail investors can already use the platform for stocks, ISAs, options, and futures. The crypto offer has no trading fees, no account fees, and no custody fees. Users pay for currency conversion instead: a 0.1% foreign exchange fee that rises to 0.3% on some weekend conversions. The listed coins include Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP, and Hyperliquid (HYPE).
Jordan Sinclair, president of Robinhood UK Ltd and general manager of Bitstamp UK Ltd, said “a new wave of UK investors sees digital assets as an important part of a diversified portfolio.” He called the launch “another major step toward becoming the all-in-one investment platform for the UK.”
Bitstamp UK is registered as a cryptoasset service provider with the Financial Conduct Authority. Cryptocurrency held through Bitstamp UK is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or the Financial Ombudsman Service. That means the usual consumer safeguards are unavailable.
Robinhood’s UK arm was added to the FCA register of cryptoasset firms on July 31, confirming it complies with anti-money-laundering rules. The register now lists more than 50 firms, including Kraken, Ripple, BlackRock, and Revolut.
The FCA’s full regulatory framework for cryptoassets is scheduled to come into force in October 2027. Until then, the register is the main compliance gate. The window between now and that date is where firms build trust and market share, but also where consumer protection gaps remain visible.
Robinhood is also turning on Cortex Digests for Crypto in the UK. The generative AI tool reads breaking news, market data, and technical indicators to explain price moves in a given asset.
Separately, Robinhood Chain went live on mainnet on July 1 after testing since February. It is a permissionless Layer 2 built on Arbitrum. The company says the chain has processed over $18 billion in DEX volume and exceeded $840 million in total value locked. CEO Vlad Tenev has said it is the fastest Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible chain to reach 100 million transactions.
In results released July 29, Robinhood said its second-quarter crypto transaction revenue was $100 million, down 38% from a year ago. Over the same stretch, prediction markets took in $156 million, outpacing crypto for the first time. Total net revenues increased 32% year-over-year to $1.31 billion. Net income of $573 million was up 48% from the second quarter of 2025.
“We delivered record revenues and drove new highs across equity, option, and event contract volumes,” CFO Shiv Verma said at the time.
Bitstamp’s own crypto trading volume reached $14.4 billion in August 2024, three months after the acquisition closed. That surpassed Robinhood’s own app volume of $13.7 billion for the same month.
The UK launch gives Robinhood a direct channel to British retail crypto demand, but it keeps the custody and execution layer at arm’s length through Bitstamp. The absence of FSCS protection means customers bear the full risk of exchange failure, a point the company discloses in its terms. The FCA’s 2027 regime will likely tighten conduct rules, but for now the register remains the only formal barrier.
Robinhood’s HOOD stock page shows an Alpha Score of 36, labeled Mixed, in the Financials sector.
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