Stock and crypto trading app Robinhood has reportedly re-enabled instant deposits for cryptocurrency purchases after almost a week. Robinhood has removed the original update on its support page suspending instant deposits, and its website currently shows certain users once again have "instant access" to up to $1,000 to buy crypto. Many of the app’s users also reported on social media they were able to access the trading feature last night. The "instant buying" function is a paid feature that gives Robinhood customers instant access to funds from bank deposits and stock trades. Though users were still able to buy crypto …

Robinhood’s decision to halt the trading of several stocks, including GameStop and AMC, underscores a “huge flaw” in the way the internet exists today, according to Anne Fauvre-Willis, COO of the privacy-focused Oasis Labs. Control is at the crux of the issue, Fauvre-Willis tells Cointelegraph, referring to the way Web 2.0 interfaces require that users relinquish command of their assets. She explains: “At the end of the day, users of Web 2.0 are never in control – they don’t own their assets, they don't control their data, they’re simply renting space until whatever centralized service they use decides otherwise.” “For …

The four horsemen of U.S. financial regulation will meet to discuss market manipulation concerns resulting from the headline-grabbing drama surrounding GameStop stock last week. Per a Feb. 2 report from the Wall Street Journal, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is gathering the leadership of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Federal Reserve, possibly as soon as Thursday. The SEC already announced that it was looking into recent market manipulation. The inclusion of the CFTC and the Fed suggest that the conversation is going to extend far beyond Robinhood, Reddit and GameStop. Aside from the spillover …

Robinhood, the stock trading app formerly popular with millennials, is facing another class-action suit, following its recent temporary suspension of purchases of GameStop and other “meme-stocks” through its platform. The lawsuit, filed Jan. 29 in Houston, Texas, alleges that Robinhood, along with other named defendants including TD Ameritrade and WeBull, arrived at “a common understanding of what must be done, which they carried out with conscious parallelism.” Conscious parallelism, in competition law, refers to behavior in which competitors in an oligopoly set prices or terms without a formal agreement. One entity will take the initiative in setting a price, while …

The U.S. dollar lost about 7% of its value in 2020, while Bitcoin rallied about 300% during the same period. As Bitcoin’s institutional adoption increases, United States companies may start to diversify their treasury with other stores of value, and Bitcoin (BTC) stands a good chance to garner a portion of it. Ark Invest’s latest report, "Bitcoin: Preparing for Institutions," shows that even a paltry allocation of 1% by companies from the S&P 500 could boost Bitcoin’s price by $40,000. However, analysts at Ar believe that the allocation is likely to be in the range of 2.5% to 6.5%, which …

Trading app Robinhood may have put its plans for an initial public offering on hold after public opinion turned against the company in the wake of its response to the short squeeze on GameStop (GME). According to Fox Business Network’s Charles Gasparino, sources inside Robinhood say the company’s only focus is surviving the fallout from the drama it currently finds itself engulfed in, and will pause its plans for an IPO launch for now. SCOOP: Ppl inside @RobinhoodApp tell @FoxBusiness plans for an IPO are on hold to focus on surviving the current drama over trading of stocks and settlement …

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev will reportedly testify before the United States House Financial Services Committee over the firm’s role in the volatile trading of GameStop and other volatile stocks. According to a report by the American political publication Politico, Tenev is expected to participate in a virtual hearing headed by Representative Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on Feb. 18. Politico’s report cited anonymous people familiar with the matter. Waters officially announced the Financial Services Committee’s plans to hold a GameStop-related hearing on Feb. 18. Entitled “Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide,” the hearing …

Troubled trading app Robinhood has been narrowing the list of restricted stocks on its platform but is still keeping major restrictions on GameStop shares. According to its website, Robinhood has lowered its list of restrictions to eight different stocks including GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry, Express, Genius Brands International, Koss, Naked Brand Group and Nokia. Robinhood previously limited trading for as many as 50 stocks on Friday, CNBC reported. As per the new restrictions, Robinhood users can still only buy one share of GameStop alongside five options contracts. AMC trading is capped at 10 shares and 10 options contracts. Robinhood users who …

Entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has weighed in on the recent clash between Wall Street and the r/Wallstreetbets Reddit community. In a Jan. 31 blog post, Cuban suggested that the old-school investment community is currently taking a kicking from what he describes as the “Store of Value Generation.” These millennials have developed a greater understanding of the value of digital assets, having been brought up in a world where music was more often shared as a digital file than a physical object. Blockchain technology, nonfungible tokens and smart contracts now allow any asset which can be represented digitally …

The r/Wallstreetbets saga which saw a group of Redditors join forces to extract billions from Wall Street hedge funds is set to be turned into a movie. As reported by Deadline on Jan. 31, a newly proposed book by The Social Network author, Ben Mezrich, was subject to a bidding war between major Hollywood studios, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer winning out in the end. The project will reunite Mezrich with MGM producer Michael DeLuca, who also produced the Academy-Award winning film The Social Network, which told the story of the rise of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. No details have yet been released …

Melvin Capital started 2021 with $12.5 billion in assets before retail investors from Reddit caused the firm to lose billions on its GameStop short positions. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the hedge fund has a little more than $8 billion in assets at the end of January, which includes a $2.75 billion investment from Citadel and Point72 Asset Management earlier this month. This represents a 53% loss, according to people familiar with the firm. In the report, a client claims that Melvin has "massively de-risked" its investment portfolio following the controversy involving short selling GameStop stocks. People familiar …

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor's note “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” begins the most famous English-language story of the French Revolution. Though many would disagree with me, I would argue that neither is true of today. Maybe that’s why what passes for revolutions these days is so dependent on memes and lunatic viral conspiracy theories. That same memetic energy has brought together an unholy matrimony of anarchists, leftists, populists, jilted investment bros, Boogie boys and survivalists, AOC stans, …