Robinhood Markets Inc. begins offering commission-free trading of Bitcoin (TIKER: BTC.EXANTE) and Ethereum (TIKER: ETH/USD.BITFINEX) today for the first time, and more than 4 million people have signed up to open accounts at the commission-free brokerage app, Bloomberg reported.
Trading in the two largest cryptocurrencies is available to users in California, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana and New Hampshire, but the service is expected to expand to most U.S. states by midyear.
According to Business Insider, the commission-free aspect is a trademark of Robinhood, which has offered the same policy for stock trades over the five years it's been in existence. Extending that policy places Robinhood in prime competition with other popular cryptocurrency trading platforms, including the $1.6 billion startup Coinbase.
Robinhood is also introducing Robinhood Feed — a real-time chat for people interested in keeping up to date on cryptocurrencies, market fluctuations, and investing advice.