Robinhood Crypto launches Solana staking with 5% APY for EU users

Robinhood’s European crypto branch has introduced Solana staking for its customers, offering an annual percentage yield (APY) of approximately 5% at launch.

According to Johann Kerbrat, general manager of Robinhood Crypto, the actual yield may vary as staking rewards change over time. The 5% APY offered by Robinhood Crypto is slightly lower than Coinbase’s estimated reward of 5.42% for Solana stakers.

Notably, one of the highest annual yields for staking Solana can be accessed through Phantom wallet, a self-custodial Web3 wallet that offers up to 7.58% APY. According to Robinhood, the decision to launch Solana for its first staking product is largely influenced by the popularity of the SOL token among its EU users.

Robinhood noted that the staking process in Solana is simpler compared to Ethereum, while also having a shorter bonding period for newly-staked assets to earn yield. For context, Solana has a bonding period that completes within two days, in contrast to Ethereum’s variable period which ranges from days to a few weeks.

Asked about its plans to add staking for other assets, Kerbrat said that Robinhood is considering the offerings.

Robinhood Crypto, which launched in December as a crypto trading app in the European Union, is registered and regulated in Lithuania. The company’s crypto arm noted that its app is highly downloaded by users in Poland, Italy, and Lithuania. Robinhood Crypto lists 33 tokens, compared to the US trading app, which only offers 15 crypto assets, with even fewer available in New York and Texas.

The EU platform also offers SOL and Solana memecoins like BONK and DogWifHat, which are not available in the US. Robinhood’s US arm delisted Solana and other cryptocurrencies alleged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to be unregistered securities in June of last year, following the agency’s lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance.

Despite Robinhood receiving a Wells Notice from the US SEC last week regarding its crypto listings, Kerbrat maintains that Robinhood and Robinhood’s EU crypto branch operate separately and have different business models.