Robinhood receives investigative subpoena by SEC over crypto listing

Robinhood, a leading American financial service provider, disclosed a subpoena by the United States Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC). The disclosure was made on the company’s annual report published on February 27, 2023. As per the report, the subpoena is related to cryptocurrency listing and platform operations.

Currently, the financial service provider has 18 cryptocurrencies listed on its platform. But not all coins are available for trading in all states. Cryptocurrencies like Avalanche (AVAX), Cardano (ADA), Compound (COMP), Polygon (MATIC), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Solana (SOL), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Tezos (XTZ), and Uniswap (UNI) are not available for trading in New York. Whereas, Circle’s stablecoin USDC is not available for trading in New York and Texas.

In its report, Robinhood stated that it received an investigative subpoena in December 2022. This happened right after the collapse of a leading cryptocurrency exchange – FTX, and several other crypto-firms filed for bankruptcy. Robinhood said,

“shortly after FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11, 2022, and following the bankruptcies of several other major cryptocurrency trading venues (…) we received an investigative subpoena from the SEC regarding, among other topics, RHC’s cryptocurrency listings, custody of cryptocurrencies, and platform operations.”

Moreover, the founder of FTX owned 7.6 percent of Robinhood shares before the exchange went bust. These shares are currently in the hands of the US Department of Justice.

The story is still developing.