Robinhood lists PENGU, POPCAT amid crypto ramp-up

Robinhood has listed memecoins Pengu (PENGU), Pnut (PNUT) and Popcat (POPCAT) as the online brokerage doubles down on cryptocurrency trading, it said on March 13. 

The listings mark Robinhood’s latest effort to expand its crypto offerings and compete with incumbent exchange Coinbase.

Memecoin trading has become a key battleground as rival exchanges — including Coinbase and Binance.US — accelerate new coin listings after US President Donald Trump’s November election win.

Related: Robinhood tips Singapore launch, touts memecoin interest: Report

Strong demand

In February, Robinhood Crypto said its customers had shown strong demand for more memecoin trading options. 

In addition to its newly launched coins, Robinhood lists Dogecoin (DOGE), the largest memecoin by market capitalization. It also launched crypto futures trading in January. 

“We don’t want to make decisions for the customer but if customers are asking for something and we feel like we have a way to offer it safely, we will do it,” Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood Crypto’s vice president and general manager, reportedly told Bloomberg. 

Robinhood, best known as a stock trading platform, has been investing heavily in crypto products since last year. 

In February, the online brokerage reported a 700% year-over-year jump in crypto revenues. 

Trump’s election win and rising market prices fueled across-the-board increases in crypto trading in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Regulatory reversal

Trump — who has promised to make America the “world’s crypto capital” — has appointed industry-friendly leadership to key regulatory positions. 

In February, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said most memecoins do not qualify as securities and thus do not fall under the regulators’ jurisdiction. 

This was a stark reversal from its stance under Joe Biden’s administration when former SEC Chair Gary Gensler said he thought most cryptocurrencies constituted securities. 

The same month, the agency dropped an enforcement action against Robinhood for alleged securities law violations tied to its crypto trading platform. 

X Hall of Flame: Memecoins will die and DeFi will rise again — Sasha Ivanov