Public.com tries to put a responsible spin on crypto trading

The news: The US-based digital broker is the latest of its peers to make the crypto plunge, letting users buy, sell, and hold 10 cryptocurrencies, per its blog post.

A look at Public.com: Launched in September 2019, Public.com has tried to stand out from the likes of Robinhood by avoiding risky investment products such as options and margin trading. In February, it raised $220 million at a $1.2 billion valuation and reached 1 million users.

Crypto trading made safe? Its focus on safer investing makes its foray into crypto surprising given the sector’s infamous volatility, even offering access to Dogecoin.

• But Public.com is putting its safe-trading spin on crypto in a bid to stand out from competitors: Users can set limit orders to buy and sell cryptos at a specific price they are comfortable with. The app also comes with volatility notifications, a profile on each crypto, and weekly sessions that run through recent events and trends in the space.
• It’s questionable how effective these features will be. Adding crypto inherently shifts Public.com’s ethos of safe trading. This could alienate a vast swath of its customer base: 74% of its users classify themselves as “mostly” or “exclusively” long-term investors.
• On the other hand, adding crypto could attract new kinds of users with higher risk tolerance, kicking its user acquisition into higher gear. Its 1 million users pale in comparison to Robinhood’s 21.3 million monthly active users, for example.

Bottom line: Crypto exchanges and wallets now command the leading share in trading app downloads, pushing digital brokers into the asset class—Titan and Interactive Brokers recently bowed to pressure from consumers as well. Now that cryptos are table stakes, users will flock to whichever app offers the widest range of assets at the best price, which is why eToro added a DeFi portfolio, for example.