Robinhood revealed its support for BNB on Wednesday, making the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization available to customers on its platform in the United States
THE announcementwhich has been viewed more than 530,000 times on nod similar from Coinbase a week ago. The San Francisco-based company said the Binance-linked token has been added to its listing roadmap, and trading will also go live on Wednesday.
Although Coinbase lists hundreds of assets on its platform, Robinhood has offered fewer since it began supporting crypto in 2018. As of Wednesday, Robinhood users were able to access about 41 cryptocurrencies for trading in the United States through its mobile app.
Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, but the token it offered through an initial coin offering in 2017 has historically been difficult for Americans to access. Rival Kraken, for example, only started supporting the token in April.
BNB changed hands around $1,070 on Wednesday, down 2.1% over the past day, according to the crypto data provider. CoinGecko. The price of the asset fell 22.3% from the all-time high of $1,370 set less than ten days ago.
Shane Molidor, founder and CEO of Forgd, a platform that helps connect crypto startups with market makers, said: Decrypt that listing BNB is in the best interest of Coinbase and Robinhood, despite the benefits it could bring to their larger competitor.
“It is so well established within all three global web communities that an exchange would be doing itself a disservice by not supporting trading of this asset,” he said of BNB, arguing that widespread support could indicate the industry is maturing.
Unlike traditional exchanges, which primarily match buy and sell orders, crypto exchanges serve multiple functions, Molidor noted. This includes protecting customer assets, as well as the perception that crypto exchanges serve as custodians of the tokens.
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“Unfortunately, in many cases, they are seen as investment advisors by their communities,” Molidor said. “What they list is seen as a seal of approval from the exchange that this asset has high potential and upside potential.”
Coinbase is “establishing its maturity as an impartial, two-sided market” by supporting BNB, Molidor said. It also eliminates the need for a Coinbase customer to operate an alternative platform to trade one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, he added.
“If an asset has widespread decentralization, real utility and a high valuation, they should list it,” Molidor said. “And I think that’s what they’re showing.”
