FreeCryptoCurrency.Me

Quick Take

• Robinhood’s smaller rivals are looking to capitalize on its recent headaches.
• Taking on Robinhood will be easier said than done, however, as it continues to grow even amid adversity.

This feature story is available to
subscribers of The Block Daily.
You can continue reading
this Daily feature on The Block.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has  charged three people involved with the cryptocurrency investment scheme Bitcoiin2Gen (B2G) with securities fraud. 

B2G allegedly promised investors a profit from holding the firm’s cryptocurrency, Bitcoiin, which was sold in what the SEC has deemed to be an unregistered initial coin offering (ICO). The regulator says the $11 million made throughout the Bitcoiin project as well as another called Start Options constitutes two fraudulent and unregistered securities offerings. Founder Kristijan Krstic, promoter John DeMarr and Robin Enos fraudulently induced investors, according to the SEC. 

Krstic and DeMarr face charges of violating the antifraud and registration portions of securities laws, while Enos has been charged with aiding and abetting the actions. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Department of Justice are also bringing criminal charges against DeMarr.

The SEC settled with film actor Steven Seagal early last year over charges related to B2G. Seagall was a notable promoter of Bitcoiin. In that case, the SEC said it viewed B2G as a security and its investigation into B2G was still ongoing. 

B2G is currently priced at $0.000841 with no discernible trade volume in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Robinhood — the brokerage app company that’s been making headlines for last week’s retail stock mania – raked in nearly $1 billion in payments from high-speed trading firms during 2020, according to data compiled by The Block. 

The firm, which offers zero-commission stock trading to more than 10 million users, reported last month that it received $300.4 million in payments for its order flow during the fourth quarter, bringing the total amount of such payments made last year to $921.9 million. 

Robinhood — which makes money by offloading its customer flows to trading firms like Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial – temporarily suspended trading in certain stocks, such as GameStop, that saw their values soar on the back of social media-based boosting. On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the firm has raised $3.4 billion from its existing investors to shore up its platform after experiencing issues with its clearinghouse that it says forced it to halt certain buys. Additional reporting from Reuters indicates that Robinhood may take on another $1 billion in debt.

Still, these issues have been underscored by not only an increase in downloads for the app but also an increase in PFOF payments. 

PFOF payments increased by 20% between the third quarter of the year to the fourth. Payment order flow for options increased every quarter, with Q4 comprising the largest amount of payments at $221.4 million.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Leveraging the LMAX Group’s proven low latency technology and liquidity relationships, LMAX Digital offers global financial institutions the market-leading solution for crypto trading and custodial services.

The central limit order book model enables efficient market structure, transparency and precise, consistent execution for all market participants, including banks, funds, corporates, brokerages, asset managers and professional traders.

Trading with the largest institutions globally, LMAX Digital is a primary price discovery venue, streaming real-time market data to the industry’s leading indices and analytics platforms.

• LMAX Digital current ADV $2bn
• Central limit order book – streaming institutional limit order liquidity only
• Spot BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH; all paired against USD, EUR & JPY
• Connectivity: cross connect at LD4 or over the internet
• Access: LMAX FIX 4.2/4.4, API, ITCH, web GUI & mobile
• Ultra-low latency (< 180μs), precise, consistent execution
• High throughput >100,000 messages/second
• Regulated, transparent and secure trading environment
• Full custodian solution: safe, secure, offline multi-sig. cold wallets and vault storage

LMAX Digital: secure, liquid, trusted crypto trading & custodial services. Regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.