Robinhood CEO Explains Why He's Resisting Calls For Accepting Shiba Inu

Robinhood Markets, Inc. HOOD is under tremendous pressure to add Shiba Inu SHIB/USD to its tradable instruments list but has so far has not made a final decision on the matter. New information indicates that there could be a plausible reason for the trading app's non-action.

What Happened: The "When Shiba" question was unavoidable for Robinhood executives on their earnings call held late Thursday. In an Q&A session moderated by Irvin Sha, Head of Investor Relations and Capital Markets, the trading app's co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev gave a round-about answer to this persistent question.

Sha brought up a question regarding whether Robinhood plans to open trading to other cryptocurrencies and whether the trading app is going to list Shiba Inu. In reply, Tenev said they have been hearing from customers loudly.

"We know they want more cryptocurrencies on the platform, and we've actually been proactively engaging with regulators," Tenev said on the call.

The main concern about adding a large number of coins, the CEO said, is that a lot of them could be unregistered securities. The trading app wants to steer clear of SEC scrutiny over listing cryptocurrencies, he added.

"That said, we have robust protocols in place. We feel very confident about the coins that we have on the platform, and we intend to add more coins going forward that we want to do it prudently," Tenev said.

The SEC is having an ongoing legal tussle with Ripple, with the regulator accusing Ripple's executive Chairman and CEO of raising funds since 2013 through the sale of XRP XRP/USD, an unregistered security.

Robinhood may not be wanting to rub the SEC the wrong way by indiscriminately listing a slew of cryptos, and instead is waiting for more clarity on the regulatory front.

Why It's Important: The loyal following of SHIBA – called the SHIBARMY - has been projecting the potential addition to Robinhood as a "win-win" proposition.

Amid the crypto and broader market downturn, SHIB has come back notably from its all-time high of $0.000088 reached on Oct. 28, 2021. A Robinhood listing could help the meme crypto break out of the lackluster phase, given it would increase the availability and demand for the token and in turn its prices.

Latest numbers from Robinhood shows that it had about 17.3 million users as of December 2021.

At last check, Shiba Inu was seen up 5.98% at $0.000021.

Photo: Courtesy of Diverse Stock Photos on Flickr

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