The final quarter of 2024 saw a Bitcoin soared over 25% to break $100,000 following the election of Donald Trump and a crypto-friendly Republican Congress. While crypto markets have posted a modest retreat in the final two weeks of December, the overall trends remain highly bullish. Those trends include the ongoing embrace of crypto by Wall Street; the popularity of Ethereum—and its offshore derivatives exchange. Robinhood is also set to capitalize on its own recent crypto-related initiatives, including its foray into prediction markets and its growing crypto presence in Europe.

The bottom line is that both Robinhood and Coinbase have evolved from firms reliant on a feast-or-famine business model based around temporary trading trends, and into companies that occupy the pole position as crypto becomes a mainstay of global finance.