Robinhood says SEC issued subpoena related to crypto operations

Robinhood Markets Inc said in a filing on Tuesday it had received an investigative subpoena in December from the US Securities and Exchange Commission related to listings of cryptocurrencies.

The collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX was the biggest in a string of major crypto-related failures in 2022, which sparked a cryptocurrency rout and left creditors facing losses of billions of dollars.

FTX filed for bankruptcy in November, which spurred an intervention from regulators around the world and dealt a blow to investor sentiment in the sector.


The SEC has maintained that pre-existing securities laws also apply to digital assets and that many crypto tokens meet the definition of a security, which the crypto industry has previously criticised.

Robinhood said the subpoena it received from the SEC was regarding the supported currencies at Robinhood Crypto LLC, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the brokerage, as well as its custody of cryptocurrencies and other platform operations.

Earlier this month, Robinhood also said it planned to repurchase its shares from Sam Bankman-Fried's Emergent Fidelity Technologies as US prosecutors were in the process of seizing its shares tied to the former FTX CEO.

Retirement plans

In December, the company said it was initiating signups for a retirement programme, where customers can sock savings into an Individual Retirement Account, something better known as an IRA.

It's the first such effort for Robinhood, which is trying to recapture some of the high-flying growth that fell off as painful downturns made day-trading of stocks and cryptocurrencies much less fun.

Robinhood has often appealed to younger customers, and many of them are working jobs that don't have access to a traditional 401(k) retirement plan offered by an employer, said Vlad Tenev, Robinhood's chief executive.

Such 401(k) accounts have been instrumental in getting millions of Americans to save for retirement, with many workers getting enrolled automatically by their employer. But many of Robinhood's customers are in parts of the job market that don't get the luxury of such programmes.