Robinhood's Crypto Trade Volumes Fell Nearly Twice As Fast As Options Trades In October — But Accounts Rose

Robinhood Markets Inc HOOD is out with its monthly metrics report for October which offers insights into what its users are trading — hint, it isn’t crypto.

What Happened: Investors on the commission-free trading platform reduced trading volumes across cryptocurrencies by 80% year-over-year, and 2% since last month as traders assessed the broader implications of the collapse of FTX, which stoked greater volatility in the market.

Instead, some of those investors are turning to options contracts, as 78.7 million contracts were traded in October, up 1% month-over-month, but down 14% year-over-year.

Read Also: Robinhood Is Now Offering Options Contracts That Expire Every Day Of The Week

The number of funded accounts showed no change month-over-month, with 22.9 million active accounts, rising 2% year-over-year.

Why It Matters: Before Robinhood, anyone who wanted to invest in stocks would be charged between $5 to $10 a trade. They also needed to invest a minimum of $500 to open an account.

Company founder Vlad Tenev aimed to democratize finance for all with the introduction of Robinhood back in 2015, noting that executing a trade costs brokerages "fractions of a penny."

Tenev’s Robinhood facilitates commission-free trades of stocks, ETFs and cryptocurrency via mobile app and web browser.

An industry disrupter, Robinhood became immensely popular during the COVID-19 lockdowns, with retail investors buying and selling meme stocks and cryptocurrencies, forcing other brokerages — such as WeBull — to follow Robinhood’s model of commission-free trades.

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