“Can the world's oldest regulated crypto exchange become the institutional-grade trading and custody backbone of the Robinhood financial ecosystem?”
Founded in 2011 as a straightforward Bitcoin exchange, Bitstamp differentiated early through regulatory compliance—becoming the first EU crypto exchange to hold a Payment Institution licence in 2016 and obtaining a NY DFS BitLicense in 2019. Over the following years it expanded from pure spot trading into custody (BitGo, 2019), institutional services (Bitstamp as a Service, BLINC settlement rails, 2020), and yield/lending products (Earn Lending, 2023). Acquired by Robinhood in 2024, the platform is now positioned as the institutional-grade crypto exchange backbone for the Robinhood ecosystem, operating under the 'Bitstamp by Robinhood' brand.