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- >Robinhood vs. Cash App
Robinhood vs. Cash App
Robinhood and Cash App are products born of the financial technology (or FinTech) revolution.
Both Cash App and Robinhood are aimed towards relatively inexperienced investors with a whole suite of different products.
Robinhood is focused primarily on stocks and ETFs while Cash App’s speciality is mobile payments and transactions.
Cash App and Robinhood both offer exposure to cryptocurrency (although they handle it in very different ways). In today’s showdown we’re going to take a look at which platform is better for crypto users.
Cash App vs Robinhood Compared
- A great one-stop shop for anyone looking to invest in cryptocurrency or stocks
- Easy onboarding procedure requires very little from user
- Fully regulated financial institution in the United States
- Support for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, DOGE, ETC, and BSV
- One of the simplest ways to buy Bitcoin
- Owned by financial stalwart Square
- You can withdraw your Bitcoin to a personal wallet, unlike competing apps
- Really simple sign-up process
- Reliable and trustworthy
Cash App Overview
Financial services company Square launched mobile payments Cash App in 2013. It was originally called Square Cash but rebranded as Cash App in 2018 with support for buying and selling Bitcoin.
Cash App is a relatively simple mobile payments app that lets its tens of millions of users transfer money to each other through the app or email. The company has expanded its services over the years with tax software, stocks
While the app remains relatively streamlined it has added a number of features including the aforementioned ability to buy and sell Bitcoin, stock trading and a dedicated Cash App debit card.
Of course Square Inc. is the parent company of Cash App. Square was co-founded by massive crypto advocate Jack Dorsey (who also co-founded Twitter).
Cash App Pros and Cons
Pros
Simple way to buy Bitcoin
Low fees and streamlined interface make Cash App a great option for crypto beginners
You can withdraw your Bitcoin to your own personal wallet or a different exchange
Cons
Cash App only supports Bitcoin, which means no Ethereum, Cardano or any other cryptocurrency.
Only available on mobile devices
Robinhood Overview
Robinhood was launched in 2013 with the idea of making the stock market more accessible to the general public, rather than just the wealthy. Hence the name.
Most notably Robinhood offered an easy sign-up process and dramatically reduced fees on trades compared to traditional brokerages at the time.
In 2018, Robinhood decided to expand its offerings and give customers exposure to a variety of different cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum and many others.
Robinhood does not, however, give customers the ability to withdraw crypto to an individual wallet. Some crypto users have criticized Robinhood as essentially giving users IOUs for crypto rather than actual cryptocurrency.
Robinhood Pros and Cons
Pros
Support for cryptocurrencies and the stock market
Very simple interface for new crypto users
Commission-free trading
You can deposit as little as you want
Cons
You cannot withdraw your cryptocurrency holdings from Robinhood
A decent selection altcoins but you’re going to have to go to proper cryptocurrency exchange if you want more obscure coins
Beginner Friendliness
Robinhood and Cash App are both aimed at the beginner crypto market so it’s perhaps no surprise that it’s very easy to buy and sell crypto on both platforms.
Cash App is arguably the simplest because it only offers Bitcoin and you just have to click the Bitcoin tab to purchase the cryptocurrency but Robinhood is also extremely simple.
These are both great choices for new crypto users.
Trust & Security
Robinhood and Cash App are both considered very safe.
It’s worth noting that they take slightly different approaches to security, however. Robinhood doesn’t let you withdraw your crypto from the site and put it on a private wallet. While that’s a downside for most crypto enthusiasts — who prefer to use an individual wallet — it means you don’t have to worry about sending it to the wrong address.
Additionally Robinhood keeps the majority of their customer’s cryptocurrency in cold storage and even has insurance against cyber crime.
Finally Robinhood has decent customer support but no phone contact, which can be a deal breaker for some people.
Meanwhile Cash App offers cutting edge security for its Bitcoin but, since it’s possible to withdraw BTC from the site, you’ll probably want to move it to a personal wallet if you have a particularly large amount of BTC.
Furthermore, Cash App does not offer insurance on it’s BTC balances.
Fees
Cash App offers some of the lowest fees for buying Bitcoin in the entire industry and they are extremely easy to understand.
Cash App charges a flat 1.75% fee for purchasing Bitcoin across the board. You’ll find that’s significantly cheaper than even some of the bigger cryptocurrency exchanges so many crypto users like to buy on Cash App and then withdraw to a different wallet or exchange depending on what they are using the BTC for.
On the other hand Robinhood charges no commission fees but actually gains a small percentage when it purchases your crypto on the open market. Those fees aren’t transparent so it’s very hard to tell what the ultimate cost of buying crypto on Robinhood. Regardless, it doesn’t seem dramatically more expensive gaining crypto exposure on Robinhood.
We’ll give the nod to Cash App in this section.
Sign-Up Process
The sign-up process is relatively simple with both Robinhood and Cash App but you’ll have to give slightly more information to Robinhood because it’s a registered stock broker.
With Cash App you really only need an email address and a bank account to get started. Once you’ve got Cash App working you might need to provide some geographic information to buy Bitcoin but that depends on where you live.
Meanwhile for Robinhood you’ll need to provide some personal identification including social security and date of birth.
Available Cryptocurrencies
This is an easy win for Robinhood because Cash App only offers Bitcoin.
On the other hand Robinhood offers a decent little portfolio that includes the following:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- Bitcoin SV (BSV)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Ethereum Classic (ETC)
- Litecoin (LTC)
Remember, however, that you won’t be able to withdraw any of the aforementioned cryptocurrencies to a personal wallet.
Standout Features
The standout features of Cash App are it’s low fees and streamlined approach to purchasing Bitcoin.
The biggest way Cash App stands out from Robinhood is that you can actually withdraw your Bitcoin. That’s a huge checkmark for Cash App in this comparison.
Meanwhile Robinhood offers one of the most beginner-friendly stock trading platforms in the world. If you’re looking to primarily invest in the stock market and maybe just get your feet wet with cryptocurrency then Robinhood is a good choice.
Conclusion: Cash App Better for Anyone Serious About Crypto
At the end of the day, if you’re serious about learning about crypto and actually using it, you are probably going to want to start with Cash App since you can actually withdraw Bitcoin to a personal wallet.
It’s not a requirement that you have to store your crypto on a personal wallet but it’s recommended to at least store some crypto on a personal wallet in case the organization holding your crypto is compromised.
One of the major benefits of crypto is that you can store it like gold and no matter what happens, so long as you secure your personal wallet, you’ll still have access to it.
That’s not to say that Robinhood isn’t without it’s appeal. Anyone who is primarily interested in stock trading but wants a little crypto in their portfolio would do well to look at Robinhood.
