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Robinhood’s crypto arm relisted Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) for U.S. customers Wednesday, reversing changes made amid a regulatory crackdown on the industry last year while also adding support for XRP and the meme coin PepeCoin (PEPE).
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance last year, in part alleging that the firms offered Solana and Cardano to investors as unregistered securities, among several other tokens, including Polygon (previously MATIC, now POL).
Meanwhile, Ripple Labs has fought a four-year legal battle against the regulator over XRP. While a federal judge in New York found last year that XRP wasn’t offered as a security through certain transactions—viewed as an industry win—the SEC filed a last-minute appeal in October.
Under the leadership of SEC Chair Gary Gensler, the agency has targeted broad swaths of the crypto industry, alleging that many players are in violation of its rules. However, the SEC is expected to adopt a less punitive approach toward crypto with Donald Trump’s White House win, spurring hopes of a regulatory framework for crypto or a new SEC figurehead.
Robinhood itself faced regulatory heat from the SEC earlier this year. Scrutinizing digital assets offered, the commission-free trading platform disclosed in May that it had received an enforcement action threat from the regulator centered on its crypto business.
While crypto exchanges will often support a panoply of assets, Robinhood’s roster of available assets has been comparatively limited. In 2021, Robinhood Crypto’s then-COO Christine Hall said the “safety-first company” assesses its tokens extensively from a regulatory perspective.
As a token that trades on little more than vibes, Pepe became synonymous with an industry-wide bout of meme coin mania that ran hot this spring. Since then, the Ethereum-based token has solidified its presence as one of the largest meme coins by market cap, only behind its dog-themed contemporaries, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB).
As of this writing, Pepe’s value has leapt 40% over the past day, rising sharply toward an all-time high price of $0.00001822 on Robinhood’s listing. Meanwhile, Solana’s 2.2% rise to $216 and Cardano’s 6.8% jump to $0.59 trailed XRP, popping 6.8% to $0.71 over the past day.
Lifting Robinhood’s roster of available cryptocurrencies in the U.S., Pepe joins a relatively small crew of meme coins on the platform. Robinhood opened its doors to Dogecoin in 2018, while Shiba Inu was added years later in 2022, a move that was accompanied by a $100,000 SHIB giveaway.
When asked for comment about the decision not to relist Polygon, Robinhood did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.
In a blog post, Robinhood Crypto’s General Manager and Vice President Johann Kerbrat said the expansion for the company’s crypto arm was driven by investor interest. At the same time, Robinhood said it regularly reviews assets for listing based on internal policies.
“We’ve consistently heard from our customers that they want access to more digital assets,” he said. “With lower barriers to entry, we believe crypto presents an opportunity for those who have been historically left behind by the traditional financial system.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward