By Sam Boughedda
Investing.com — After the bell Tuesday, online discount brokerage Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ:HOOD) announced that it will acquire Cove Markets, a cross-exchange cryptocurrency trading platform.
Shares of Robinhood fell 2.9% in after-hours trading.
"With the Cove Markets team on board, we’ll continue building a world-class crypto trading platform. The team will also help ensure our customers get the best trade execution in the crypto market," Robinhood said in a statement.
The details provided by Robinhood in a blog post were scarce, but they confirmed Cove's co-founders Scott Knudsen and Victor Glava, along with the current Cove team, will join Robinhood's crypto team.
“Scott, Victor and the Cove Markets team will bolster our crypto trading platform and help us strengthen our leadership in the crypto industry,” said Christine Brown, Chief Operating Officer of Robinhood Crypto. “Their wealth of experience in trading execution and crypto market infrastructure will help us to build more powerful trading capabilities, bringing the benefits of better competition in the crypto markets to our customers.”
Robinhood has been working on expanding its crypto division recently. It hired blockchain data platform Chainalysis to provide compliance services, while Bloomberg reported the company is working on adding a new feature that would allow users to send cryptocurrencies to other users through digital gift cards.