Less than three months after being acquired by Robinhood, crypto exchange Bitstamp has surpassed its parent platform’s crypto trading volumes, recording a 21% rise in August to $14.4 billion.
According to a company report from Robinhood on Thursday, Robinhood’s crypto nominal volumes fell 18% in August compared to July, reaching only $13.7 billion.
Data shows this volume had been trending down for Robinhood since November 2024, when it registered a record quarter, but ticked up in July before slumping in August.
Key trading volume figures for Robinhood over the last 12 months. Source: Robinhood
Robinhood completed its $200 million acquisition of Bitstamp on June 2, adding over 5,000 institutional clients and 50,000 retail customers to Robinhood’s total base.
The crypto exchange is set to play a pivotal role in the company’s ambitions in the real-world asset tokenization market.
Bitstamp, now officially called Bitstamp by Robinhood, is connected to Robinhood Legend and its Smart Exchange Routing offering, making trading between the two platforms easier.
While combined crypto trading volumes between Bitstamp and Robinhood fell 2.1% compared to the previous month, Robinhood’s total assets rose 2% over the month to $304 billion, with around $41 million in crypto.
Crypto market ended flat in August
The broader crypto market experienced only a minor rise in trading volumes in August, with prices ending the month roughly where they began.
Asked why crypto trading on Robinhood may have stalled, Ryan McMillin, CEO of Australian crypto fund management firm Merkle Tree Capital, pointed to seasonality, noting that as a North America–based platform, trading could have been affected by the summer holiday period.
Looking more broadly, McMillin said crypto market sentiment has been “relatively quiet” lately as it awaits key macro signals, particularly whether the recent weakening jobs and inflation data justifies a rate cut, and if so, to what extent.
“Trump has been pushing for lower rates while Jerome Powell has dug his heels in, now that looks to have changed.”
He and CK Zheng, a founder and chief investment officer of ZX Squared Capital, however, see a rise in overall trading volume soon as they expect crypto to hit record new highs before the end of the year.
Zheng also isn’t convinced that the fourth quarter will mark the peak of the current market cycle based on the four-year crypto cycle thesis, pointing to stronger institutional adoption with the crypto exchange-traded funds and crypto treasury companies.
Robinhood now in the S&P 500
Meanwhile, Robinhood debuted on the Standard & Poor’s 500 this week, bringing another crypto-active company to America’s most tracked stock index.
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“This movement expands the index’s exposure and connection to the digital asset economy,” Edwin Mata, CEO of tokenization platform Brickken, said in comments to Cointelegraph on Tuesday as HOOD shares rallied over 16% on the day.
Robinhood’s inclusion came as Michael Saylor’s Strategy was snubbed.
Robinhood launched its own layer 2
Around the start of July, Robinhood launched a tokenization-focused layer 2 blockchain for its customer base in the European Union, giving them access to US stocks.
It also launched perpetual futures in the EU, giving eligible traders access to derivatives with up to three times leverage. The trades will be routed through Bitstamp, the crypto exchange that it recently acquired for $200 million.
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