Robinhood May Be Too Late Entering Europe; Blockchain.com Considers IPO

If at first you do not expand, try, try again. Robinhood, which scrapped plans to expand in the U.K. in 2020, is betting its acquisition of U.K. crypto-investing platform Ziglu will help kickstart its international expansion. But Robinhood now will be fighting for share in a far more crowded European market for stock and crypto trading than it would have two years ago.

Ziglu, founded in 2018, supports purchases and sales of cryptocurrencies and enables users to earn interest on cash and bitcoin deposits. The platform is similar to Robinhood in that it competes on low transaction fees on trades, though Robinhood doesn’t charge anything on crypto transactions while Ziglu charges 1.25%. The companies did not disclose the deal price, but Ziglu was valued at $110 million in September, basically peanuts for Robinhood, which has $6 billion in cash on its balance sheet.