Last fall, Robinhood debuted its non-custodial crypto wallet to a select number of users. Now, the standalone app is available to all iOS users, with an Android version coming “later this year.” In the meantime, those who download and try this new application may be able to earn themselves a bonus in the process.
Currently, when you transfer at least $10 worth of crypto over from Robinhood itself, you can get 5 USDC — which amounts to $5 since USDC is a stablecoin pegged to the US Dollar. Of note, while the Robinhood blog quotes this 5 USDC bonus, when I downloaded the app, I was able to score 10 USDC for the same $10 transfer. Meanwhile, if you transfer at least $10 in crypto from a different wallet over to the app, you can get 1 USDC. It seems as though you can only do one of these two options (as the button to access the bonus disappeared after I completed my first one), so choose wisely.
Another factor that complicated this otherwise easy-to-get bonus is network fees. When I first looked to transfer some ETH to Wallet from Robinhood, there was going to be a $5+ fee on my $10 transaction. Thankfully, as I continued to check back, that fee slowly fell, with me eventually locking in a $1.87 fee instead. That made it so my $10 bonus was still worthwhile but this is definitely something to watch out for — especially if your bonus is only $1 or $5.
Now for the fun part. Would you rather just cash out your USDC bonus instead of having it sit in your Wallet? You can do that… but it’ll take a little more work. As I learned, it’s not quite as simple as sending the USDC to Robinhood. That’s because you’ll need to pay a network fee, which can apparently only be paid using MATIC. So, I started by heading to Robinhood, purchasing $1 of MATIC, and sending it to my Wallet (incurring a small network fee in the process). Then, I was able to send my USDC to Robinhood, at which point I was able to sell it if I wanted. Phew. Honestly, there may have been an easier way if I had potentially swapped the USDC for another asset and then sent it, but I didn’t explore such an option.
As you can tell, I don’t know a whole lot about what the new Wallet app from Robinhood has to offer. But I do know that I managed to get a little bit of free money from it. Yet, while getting the bonus itself was pretty easy, turning that into fiat proved slightly more difficult. Still, between the few dollars I did get and the content I was able to create as a result, I guess it was worth it for me. Meanwhile, if you know what you’re doing more than I do, perhaps it will be even more worth your time to check out Wallet and claim this bonus while you can.