Online brokerage Robinhood’s (NASDAQ:HOOD) revenue more than doubled in the second quarter to $565 million U.S., bolstered by a surge in cryptocurrency trading.
In its first earnings report as a public company, Robinhood said that its revenue rose 131% in the April to June period, from $244 million U.S. a year ago and was near the high end of the company’s forecast of $546 million U.S. to $574 million U.S.
Revenue from cryptocurrency trading totaled $233 million U.S., more than half of all the transaction-based revenue of $451 million U.S. for the second quarter. Cryptocurrency’s share of revenue jumped to more than 51% from 17% in the first quarter.
More than 60% of cumulative net funded accounts traded cryptocurrencies in the quarter. Robinhood said that Dogecoin was the most actively traded digital coin using its popular app.
Dogecoin accounted for 34% of the company’s cryptocurrency transaction-based revenue in the quarter.
Cryptocurrency trading, which Robinhood first introduced in 2018, has ballooned in the last few years. Robinhood offers seven different digital coins, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin.
In the second quarter of last year (2020), crypto-based revenue totaled just $5 million U.S.
Clients trading options contributed $165 million U.S. to transaction-based revenue last quarter and equities were $52 million U.S. Assets under custody ballooned 205% to $102 billion U.S. in the second quarter of 2021, compared with $33 billion U.S. in the second quarter of last year.
Robinhood reported a net loss of $502 million U.S., or $2.16 U.S. per share for the second quarter. That’s within the expected net loss of $487 million U.S. to $537 million U.S. forecast by the company. The brokerage turned a profit in the second quarter of last year.
Total funded accounts (those tied to a bank account) totaled 22.5 million at the end of the second quarter, in line with Robinhood’s forecast. This is up from 18 million funded accounts in the first quarter, which was an increase of 151% from a year earlier.
Robinhood warned investors that its third-quarter results could be affected by a slowdown in trading after a record second quarter. The company specifically called out Dogecoin as driving crypto revenues and warned about a slowdown in trading activity in the digital asset.
Shares of Robinhood fell more than 8% in after-hours trading due to the warning on slowing growth.
