Robinhood Opens UK Crypto Trading via Bitstamp: 50+ Coins, 0.1% FX Fee

Robinhood began rolling out crypto trading to UK customers this week, giving them access to more than 50 digital assets — including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and Hyperliquid — through a partnership with Bitstamp UK Ltd. The brokerage is advertising zero trading, account maintenance and custody fees, but users will still pay a 0.1% foreign-exchange fee that rises to 0.3% on weekends.

The launch marks Robinhood’s entry into a UK crypto market that has so far been dominated by dedicated exchanges, and extends its local product lineup beyond stocks, options and futures. Shares of parent company Robinhood Markets (HOOD) moved higher in premarket trading following the announcement.

The fee structure: zero commission, but an FX toll

While Robinhood is billing the service as “zero-fee,” the economics run through currency conversion rather than a trading commission. UK customers will pay 0.1% on FX conversions during the trading week, a rate that triples to 0.3% over weekends — a detail that effectively functions as a spread cost for anyone moving in and out of positions on Saturdays or Sundays.

Jordan Sinclair, President of Robinhood UK Ltd and General Manager of Bitstamp UK Ltd, framed the launch as part of a broader push to consolidate services on one platform: “A new wave of UK investors sees digital assets as an important part of a diversified portfolio. With today’s launch, we’re taking another major step toward becoming the all-in-one investment platform for the UK.”

Robinhood Chain’s numbers: $18B in DEX volume, $840M TVL

The UK rollout lands as Robinhood’s own blockchain, Robinhood Chain, continues to scale since its global launch. The network has generated more than $18 billion in cumulative decentralized-exchange trading volume, with total value locked climbing past $840 million. Robinhood Chain has also become the largest blockchain by real-world-asset holder count, underscoring the company’s strategy of pairing retail brokerage products with its own on-chain infrastructure.

New AI tool: Cortex Digests for Crypto

Alongside the trading rollout, Robinhood introduced Cortex Digests for Crypto, an AI-powered feature that summarizes market news, technical indicators and asset-specific catalysts for users tracking individual tokens. The feature is designed to sit inside the same app where customers now execute trades, reinforcing Robinhood’s positioning as a single destination for research and execution.

Why it matters for UK crypto users

For UK-based traders, the launch adds a mainstream brokerage option to a market long served primarily by specialist exchanges, potentially pressuring incumbents on pricing and product breadth. The headline “zero-fee” claim deserves scrutiny, however: the 0.1%-0.3% FX charge means active weekend traders will still bear a real cost per transaction, even without a visible commission line.

The move also signals Robinhood’s continued effort to cross-sell crypto access to its existing UK brokerage user base, betting that convenience and a single app experience can offset the narrower fee advantage compared with dedicated crypto-native platforms.

Read more: Wintermute USA Wins SEC/FINRA Broker-Dealer License to Trade Crypto ETFs, Stocks

Sources

• coingape.com
• cryptopotato.com