Robinhood exec says crypto is just their first step into Canada

When Robinhood launched their services in the United Kingdom, they started with a brokerage offering. Recently, they expanded that offering though access to their crypto trading platform. In Canada, they’re following that process in reverse. Johann Kerbrat, Crypto General Manager at Robinhood recently told WP about how the US-based trading platform views the Canadian market. While unwilling to promise exactly what will follow from Robinhood’s acquisition of WonderFi and their launch of a Canadian crypto platform, he says that there will be “more products to come.”

Kerbrat explained how his firm sees opportunity in Canada, despite the strong presence of the banks, independent wealth managers, and domestic discount brokerages in the investment and cryptocurrency space. He outlined what his firm wants to offer through their crypto platform and explained how Canada’s financial services industry can view the US firm’s ongoing expansion here.

“We never really look at a market as being saturated or not. When we launched, for example, the same kind of comments were being made around brokerage services and saying that it was saturated. And Robinhood came with a fairly novel product suite and created competition and drove pricing down and innovation up,” Kerbrat says. “I think that’s what we want to do in Canada. We think competition is good for the customer.”

How Robinhood wants to use crypto to reach Canada

While Robinhood may expand their offerings down the road, they’ve begun their Canadian entry with a cryptocurrency trading platform. That launch comes at a time when crypto interest appears to be waning. Bitcoin has lost about one third of its value over the past 12 months, though flows into US-listed cryptocurrency ETFs have picked up in volume over the past month. Kerbrat says his firm’s approach is to remain agnostic to the price activity in cryptocurrencies and focus on the demand for access by investors. He says that this approach allows Robinhood to outcompete on crypto products and tools, contrasting their consistent approach with competitor firms who focus on the space only when there’s momentum in the space.

Beyond accessing cryptocurrencies, Kerbrat says his firm wants to offer more ways to access private and public asset classes through blockchain tokenization. This process, which creates a tradeable ‘token’ from a traditional asset, can make accessing and trading certain assets far easier. Kerbrat says that Robinhood has begun with the tokenization of the US Dollar as well as certain US-listed stocks and ETFs. He wants to offer other tokenized versions of assets that Canadian investors have a harder time accessing through available retail channels.

Kerbrat notes that the decision to enter the Canadian market with a crypto platform was taken with a view that Canadian investors, especially retail investors, have a lot of active interest in cryptocurrency. He says that despite the presence of cryptocurrency in Canada, Robinhood still sees room for “disruption.”

What the industry should take from Robinhood’s push

The drive to expand their crypto platform and roll out other product offerings in Canada has required an investment in a local team. Kerbrat notes that Robinhood has maintained a presence in Canada in 2024, using Toronto as an engineering hub. The Toronto office now has around 200 employees, with capacity to onboard another 200. He acknowledges that the competitive landscape for investment in Canada is challenging, noting the presence of the big banks, but he believes that by localizing Robinhood’s existing offerings and competitive advantages, the firm can break into the Canadian market.

That push will be underpinned by Robinhood’s existing relationships in the United States. Kerbrat notes that the firm has partnerships with liquidity providers and market makers that make the crypto assets on their platform more competitively priced. He expects that the firm’s drive to make crypto more competitive in Canada will eventually result in more competition across a range of market segments and product lines.

“What we want is really to give a choice to Canadians. You know, I think if you look at the more fintech model, there was not really a ton of choices for Canadians until now. And so that’s where we’re really excited to bring the entirety of Robinhood to Canada, not just the crypto product,” Kerbrat says. “We want customers to very clearly see which is the best between Robinhood and their other platforms, that’s how we want to get started. Then, slowly, we can tap on the new features that we are looking to bring into the market.”