*By Alisha Haridasani* The free trading app Robinhood, which offers stocks and options trading without commission fees, announced Thursday that it closed a Series D round of funding with $363 million. That brings the fintech start-up's valuation to $5.6 billion. With 4 million users, Robinhood has been able to overtake the online trading industry's biggest player, E*TRADE, which has 3.7 million users. “E*TRADE has been around since the original dot-com boom and is kind of considered the industry standard of online brokerages,” said Dan Primack, business editor of Axios. “The fact that Robinhood has been able to outpace them in terms of users in such a short period of time, I think is quite remarkable.” Much of Robinhood’s growth has come from its new cryptocurrency trading platform, co-founder and co-CEO Baiju Bhatt told [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/10/trading-app-robinhood-surpasses-e-trade-in-user-numbers.html). That platform offers trading in Bitcoin and Ethereum, and is available in 10 states, with plans to expand. Beyond crypto, Robinhood aims to build more products, said Primack, who spoke with one of Robinhood’s co-founders before the company announced its latest funding. Robinhood's new initiatives could include its own credit cards, platforms to trade other securities, and possibly an insurance product, Primack said. Since Robinhood doesn’t make any money from commissions, it relies on subscriptions for its revenue. The firm [reportedly](http://fortune.com/2018/05/10/robinhood-stock-crypto-trading/) plans to stick to that business model. For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/robinhood-quadruples-valuation-with-363-million-round-of-funding).

Share:
More In Technology
ITAA Helps People Fight Tech Addiction
About 61% of people who use the internet are addicted to it, according to research. Cheddar News dove in at a recent meeting for a 12-step program as part of a group called ITAA (Internet Technology Addicts Anonymous). The group ( https://internetaddictsanonymous.org/ ) was formed to help the growing number of tech addicts, with more than 6% of the globe's population now addicted, according to the University of Hong Kong.
Stretching Your Dollar: How to Make Home EV Charging Affordable
The push for clean energy is igniting an interest in electric vehicles but charging EVs continues to be a concern for consumers looking to save. Brian Moody, executive editor with Autotrader, joined Cheddar News to discuss how people can make home-charging more affordable.
Load More