Robinhood users face a spread of nearly 2% when buying and selling Bitcoin through the platform's default market maker routing. This cost is embedded directly into the quoted asset prices rather than appearing as a separate fee. Tommy Shaughnessy, co-founder of Delphi Digital, highlighted a specific instance where the bid-ask gap reached 1.87% for an agentic trade.
Under the default routing system, Robinhood Crypto receives $0.95 for every $100 of trading volume. Shaughnessy noted that this approach effectively charges users 1% for both buying and selling. The platform introduced agentic trading earlier this year, allowing external AI agents to execute trades through dedicated accounts, though these agents cannot currently stake, lend, or transfer assets.
Johann Kerbrat, general manager of crypto at Robinhood, stated that users can opt for Smart Exchange Routing. This alternative carries a disclosed fee between 0% and 0.95%, which decreases based on a trader's 30-day volume. Additionally, the company clarified that users can transfer Bitcoin directly to external wallets without needing to sell their holdings first.
