Why Christine Brown left Robinhood for an NFT app

Robinhood has had an unstable journey in the crypto industry.

The Quick-swipe stock trading app was launched in 2013, but did not add crypto in five years. It started trading with Bitcoin and Ethereum in February 2018, so in July Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and Dogecoin were added – and got a big setback for the latter. (Throughout the cryptocurrency in 2021, DOGE was a drug for Robinhood until it became an albatross.) Since then, it has added Bitcoin SV, Ethereum Classic, Compound, Polygon, Solana and Shiba Inu, which has brought the number of total supported coins to 11.

Christine Brown was there for everything. The former Googler joined Robinhood in 2017, before ever touching crypto, then became its first Crypto COO in May 2021, increasing its crypto team from five to 100 in one year.

At the end of March, she left the company, and is now co-founder and COO of Floor, an NFT portfolio tracking app that announced a $ 8 million seed round this week.

Robinhood has certainly had its stock problems, including a terrible drop of 56% this year, but many may still wonder why a leader would leave a listed $ 6.5 billion listed company for an NFT app.

Brown explains the jump further Decrypther latest gm podcast, and said she left a place that solely invests in services for an industry that she believes is about much more than that. “I think many people see a very small part of the NFT area today, and they think, ‘Oh, that represents speculative trading or financial positions.’ That’s where you can see some overlap with the Robinhood brand, “Brown said.” But I think NFTs will actually drive a huge number of utility cases, from things we already know like art, ticket memberships, to things we don’t know yet. We are so early, and there is so much that can be built on top of this first use case, that to me it actually feels much bigger than just an investment, which is where Robinhood’s focus was. “

Brown said she is fully involved in NFTs, citing the popular comparison of Web3 with the very first days of the internet, with the notches and shovels still being built and sold, and skeptics still unable to see the big picture coming down the line. .

“If you would have told the first builders that I would use this to get a taxi to take me somewhere, and I actually did not have to call it, I would not have to pay for it with cash, they may be a little surprised that it was what they built for at the time, “Brown said.” And I think that’s what we want to see with NFTs, too. “

By asserting the potential of NFTs, Brown also took up Dogecoin and Robinhood’s tumultuous experience with DOGE trading on his app last year.

“Dogecoin had a moment last year on Robinhood’s platform, and many people said, ‘This is a meme coin. Why support it? Why replace it? This is a bad thing for crypto in general, “Brown said.” And I actually think it got a bad rap, and in many ways it does not get the credit it deserves for helping people on board the room … I think in many ways NFTs are, but in a much larger way. , larger scheme, because it has more uses beyond just financial speculation. “

Brown also named her favorite NFT collections and gave her predictions of what will happen next in the crowded NFT area, as well as competition between exchanges like Coinbase and FTX and fintech apps like Robinhood, PayPal and Square.

Listen to the entire gm podcast episode and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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