US brokerage Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) saw its shares trade sharply higher on Wednesday morning after the company overnight introduced its first credit card for customers – the Robinhood Gold Card.
Robinhood called its Gold Card “the only credit card you’ll ever need,” though at least initially it’s only offered to Robinhood Gold members. The Robinhood Gold Card has no annual fee, no foreign transaction fees and offers 3% cash back on all categories or 5% cash back on travel when booked through Robinhood’s brand new travel portal.
The Robinhood Gold Card is offered by Robinhood Credit, Inc. and issued by Coast Community Bank (Member FDIC), under license from Visa USA Inc.
In response to the announcement, Robinhood shares jumped 6-7% in premarket trading Wednesday, but fell just under $20 (up about 3%) in morning trading. The $20 level marks Robinhood stock’s highest level since late 2021.
The reason for the jump in share price appears to be not just the credit card itself, but the direction Robinhood is taking – becoming more of a one-stop retail financial supermarket, as opposed to the same online stockbroker for memes and crypto.
In an interview with CNBC this morning (see video below), Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev (who just saw the departure of co-founder Baiju Bhatt last week) said the company wants to build a world for customers where all their assets are held in Robinhoodand every financial transaction goes through Robinhood – with credit being a critical part of the equation.
Vlad Tenev’s CNBC interview this morning follows below.