What's Driving The Price Of Bitcoin Higher? Vlad Tenev On Recent Crypto Surge And Robinhood's Role In The Industry

Bitcoin BTC/USD has soared above the $44,000 level for the first time since April 2022 and Robinhood Markets Inc HOOD is benefitting.

What To Know: Wednesday on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev provided some insights on the recent surge in Bitcoin.

"I think a lot of people have forgotten that Robinhood is a major player in the cryptocurrency industry," Tenev said. 

Robinhood's approach to crypto trading is to make sure customers feel they are getting a great experience and are getting good deals on crypto purchases. The company has done a lot of work to make sure customers have access to competitive spreads and it's seeing results. 

Crypto trading volumes on Robinhood were up 75% in November compared to October and customers contributed roughly $1.4 billion of net deposits to the platform last month.

Tenev told CNBC the recent momentum in the crypto space appeared to be due to several factors including increased institutional interest driven by continued optimism surrounding a potential spot Bitcoin ETF, an end to the Federal Reserve's rate hike cycle and the idea that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are an inflation hedge. 

Several analysts continue to expect the SEC to approve a spot ETF in the coming months and recent economic data and commentary from Fed Chair Jerome Powell has given rise to expectations the Fed was probably done hiking rates and could even begin to talk about cutting. 

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Bitcoin is the most popular recurring investment on the Robinhood platform, so customers who are dollar cost averaging into assets are choosing to do so most frequently in Bitcoin, Tenev said. 

Bitcoin already offers so much of what Robinhood is trying to bring to individual investors. The technology behind crypto promises that it has the potential to fundamentally reorganize the financial system by taking power from institutions and putting it back in the hands of the people, the Robinhood CEO said. 

"A lot of the things that I've been trying to initiate in the equity markets like real-time settlement, 24-hour trading, built-in fractionalization to make more and more assets accessible, these are things that come for free with crypto because of the technology," Tenev said. 

"I think over time, that technology will further penetrate the traditional markets and I think Robinhood can continue to be a leader in making that happen."

HOOD Price Action: Robinhood shares were up 8.64% at $11.44 at publication Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: Pete Linforth from Pixabay.