The eyes of the cryptocurrency world have been largely fixed on the US for the past few weeks amid speculation as to what pro-crypto President Donald Trump might do upon his return to the oval office.
With speculation around a federal crypto reserve or stockpile rife, it has certainly made more countries aware and somewhat reactive to Trump’s crypto agenda as the President is looking to make the US a global leader.
Future prospects in an unfragmented Europe
Prior to Trump’s election, the passage of the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulations in the EU had a lot of cryptoheads talking. The establishment of a single framework for all 27 EU countries in particular has given much confidence on a more level layering field in European crypto, ending years of what many critics of the sector labelled a ‘Wild West’ environment.
“We embrace the MiCA framework, we think that it can level the ground for all the countries in the EU,” says Johann Kerbrat, General Manager of Robinhood Crypto, speaking to Payment Expert shortly after the platform launched in Spain.
“Previously there was a bit of a separation of rules for cryptocurrency, you could market one way in Germany, another in France or Italy – it creates one framework for the entire EU, and that makes the EU a really attractive market.
“It’s about the same size as the US in terms of population and you have only one framework for the entire EU. I think for us, on this launch in Spain, in any case this was something in the plan. We have been working with the Bank of Spain for a while and it’s a continuity of what we were executing.”
Americans’ enthusiasm for crypto is well documented, represented by statistical data. Europeans are hardly shy when it comes to investing in or buying crypto, however, with in excess of 30 million EU residents alone estimated to own some form of digital asset.
Smaller European nations like Slovenia, Croatia and Luxembourg have the highest levels of crypto ownership at 18%, 16% and 14%, respectively. European markets outside the EU, like the UK, also have an appetite for crypto, with 12% of the country’s population owning some form of cryptocurrency according to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) figures.
Companies of various sizes both in and out of the EU with an interest in the trade bloc’s crypto sector have been eagerly awaiting MiCA. A phasing out of the fragmented approach to EU crypto regulation has made a lot of stakeholders confident about European crypto’s prospects.
“For us it’s to continue what we’ve been doing, doubling down on the offering, the features we offer,” Kerbrat says on Robinhood’s post-MiCA ambitions.
“Currently it’s a bit fractionalised, not all the features are available in the same way because of the limitations on marketing or referrals. It (MiCA) is going to simplify how we think about building products, in the sense that we will be able to build one for the whole EU and adapt to the country based on user research.”
Long term vision against market volatility
Crypto of course remains a volatile market. After months and months of successive searing valuations, the market again took a hit this week with Bitcoin’s value falling to $80,000, a huge drop after sustaining record all-time highs of over $100,000 for the past several weeks.
Last week, the sector was similarly hit with a slump following the launch of the DeepSeek-R1 AI model, which had some negative forecasts for global crypto and shook some market confidence.
At Robinhood, the firm’s Crypto GM asserts that when the company builds it does so with ‘multi-year vision and horizon’ in mind, rather than being distracted by daily changes in volume in what is widely recognised as a sector that can turn on its head overnight.
“We think crypto is here to stay, we think it is going to be part of the financial framework of tomorrow, and so we are looking at five years plus and the day doesn’t really matter too much,” he says.
All the political talk around crypto is hard to ignore, however. Many have been waiting for Trump’s administration to usher in regulatory and legislative changes which could further build up – though at this point restore might be a more appropriate term – crypto confidence.
Some stakeholders were disappointed when Trump’s first executive order on crypto did not mention a federal crypto reserve but instead a stockpile. The fact he has tasked a working group with assessing how to craft a regulatory framework on crypto also suggests this will be a longer-running process than some may have hoped.
The impact changes in the US, which as the world’s largest economy and home to the third-largest crypto owners by population in the world, also have the potential for significant knock-on effects on Europe, whether good or bad. Companies with interests in crypto need to keep these factors in mind while remaining committed to their own long-term strategy.
“The EU is still a very independent jurisdiction from the US, but I think the US is catching up on the EU,” says Robinhood Crypto’s Kerbrat.
“MiCA was a bit more advanced than what there is in the US, but it is a good sign to see the US going back into the crypto space and signalling that they want to be number one in crypto.
“I think it will create less concern about cryptocurrencies. I think it is a good thing and if we can get clear regulation in every region of the world we will see more development of crypto and blockchain technology overall.”
So, in Robinhood’s case, why the launch in Spain and what has the company planned for Europe’s post-MiCA crypto landscape? Kerbrat explains that local knowledge is important for the company, pointing to how in Spain it talked with local Spanish users prior to launch to ensure its local platform met local needs.
Though MiCA is reducing fragmentation across 27 different jurisdictions of the EU, differences between these sectors remain apparent.
It may seem obvious, but crypto platforms interested in pan-European activity need to recognise that though regulatory environments may be levelling out, local market conditions and consumer preferences will rarely – if ever – be fully aligned.
Robinhood is confident in its Spanish prospects, with Kerbrat noting ‘a lot of the same competitors’ in Spain as in its other EU markets, while asserting that the firm’s UX/UI and approach of making ‘complicated things very simple’ will prove popular with both crypto enthusiasts and new investors in the country.
“Spain is such an important country in the EU in terms of population and obviously in terms of adoption of crypto, which has been really strong,” he says.
“For us to get into the country and launch an app that is also translated in Spanish, we are trying to target the market. It is a big milestone, and there will be many milestones – we are just getting started.
“We only launched in December last year, and so for us the journey is just starting and we definitely see Spain as a major accomplishment.”
More launches on the horizon?
Regardless of geopolitical goings on, crypto has been on Robinhood’s agenda for some time and like public interest in the sector, it is unlikely to fade anytime soon. Last year saw the firm embark on some major projects which only suggest a long-term commitment to the sector – no matter the fluctuating value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies may experience.
In October 2024, Robinhood Crypto launched its pan-European crypto transfers encompassing over 20 coins and later that year, it joined the USDG stablecoin consortium alongside exchange Kraken and digital asset-focused investment firm Galaxy Digital. Confidence in the post-MiCA market was a key driver behind both decisions.
A third key development saw Robinhood secure terms to acquire crypto exchange Bitstamp, and though the takeover has not been finalised, it will likely play a major role in the company’s future plans for European and international crypto.
Bitstamp has ‘more licences than we have’ in the UK, Singapore and the US, Kerbrat tells Payment Expert’, while also pointing to the more obvious benefit of the firm’s crypto exchange platform. “That was part of the acceleration of this expansion,” he says.
Not only does Robinhood Crypto gain the market knowledge and expertise of the longest-running crypto exchange to date, but a trusted platform like Bitstamp enables Robinhood to gain an early foothold in the post-MiCA market. But as with all licensee MiCA operators, it has had to adjust to the new rulings.
When MiCA enforced its new guidelines surrounding which stablecoins complied with its regulations, Bitstamp made the decision to delist the Euro-backed EURT, one of the more popular Euro stablecoins which is issued by Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer in the world.
As Europe continues to adjust to MiCA regulations and the crypto sector continues to evolve on both sides of the Atlantic, companies of various shapes and sizes will be looking to carve out their own slice of the cake.
Robinhood is one of many, but it has been investing ample time and resources into its crypto prostitution, Payment Expert understands from this conversation with Kerbrat. European crypto stakeholders can expect the firm to remain an active player for the foreseeable future.
“We’re in this process of going into new countries, I think what is really important is making sure we have the right product for the country, making sure the Spanish product is not the same as the Italian one or the Polish one, so it will take a bit more time,” Kerbrat surmises.
“Our plan is to keep launching in new countries in the future, for sure.”
