What happened
The price of Solana (SOL 3.97%) had risen as much as 7% over 24 hours at 9:30 a.m. EST before it gave away some of those gains. The popular retail investing app Robinhood announced earlier today that it had added the token to its trading platform.
So what
Robinhood has been slow to add cryptocurrencies to its trading platform, despite strong demand from its customers. CEO Vlad Tenev said on the company's recent earnings call that Robinhood has wanted to be careful not to add tokens that financial regulators might consider unregistered securities.
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This morning, Robinhood added four new tokens, including Solana. The move should increase exposure for the cryptocurrency because Robinhood had more than 17 million monthly active users at the end of 2021.
Tenev also said that Robinhood has been investing heavily in its crypto capabilities, including by adding features such as crypto gifting and crypto wallets. Robinhood also plans to open crypto investing to international customers later this year.
Now what
This should be a positive for Solana, which now has close to a $35 billion market cap, because it will increase exposure to the token. Robinhood customers have heavily been demanding more tokens on the platform, and using Robinhood is arguably one of the easiest ways to buy and sell equities and cryptocurrencies. This could create more trading activity on Solana.
I also think Solana is one cryptocurrency that merits consideration, considering its smart-contract capabilities and faster transaction times, which make it a viable option for supporting non-fungible tokens and decentralized applications.
