Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev said in an interview published on Monday that given Robinhood's growing interest in cryptocurrencies, the idea of holding Bitcoin "comes up from time to time." But he added that in addition to holding some Bitcoin as part of its business of meeting customer trading needs, the company has no plans to hold BTC for investment purposes.
"We won't rule it out. So far, we haven't done that, and we're not in the business of investment managers," Tenev said.
He went on to say that while Robinhood has not followed in the footsteps of companies like MicroStrategy and Tesla and added Bitcoin to its balance sheet, the company's stock price "has become highly correlated to it without us even holding Bitcoin." Robinhood shares are up 202% this year, while Bitcoin has returned 110% so far this year.
But Tenev said he believes that if Robinhood holds Bitcoin for investment purposes, investors' perception of the company could be "complicated," potentially viewing it as a "quasi-Bitcoin holding strategy." (The Block)