Robinhood starts rolling out crypto wallets to 1,000 people on its 1.6 million-strong waitlist

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Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Robinhood Markets has launched a beta version of its long-awaited cryptocurrency wallet program for the first 1,000 customers from its waiting list of 1.6 million, the retail trading platform said Thursday.

Customers will be able to send crypto from their Robinhood accounts to external wallets, and vice-versa, in the Crypto Wallets Beta Program, it said.

Those beta testers will have a daily limit of $2,999 in total withdrawals and 10 transactions, and they will need to enable two-factor authentication when signing in.

«Beta testers will help us test core functionality and provide critical feedback to inform the final version of the product,» Robinhood said. 

The wallets will «fully connect Robinhood crypto holders to the greater blockchain ecosystem for the very first time,» according to a company description.

Robinhood is popular among retail investors and benefited from a surge in crypto activity among its customers last year. The trading app provider introduced crypto trading services in 2018.

For now, the investing app offers seven types of digital assets, including bitcoin, ethereum, and dogecoin.

The beta program is set to expand to 10,000 customers by March this year and will then roll out to the rest of the WenWallets waitlist.

Robinhood will also allow customers to calculate the amount of crypto to send or receive in dollars.

It has set up safety features for the program on its app and platform. Security integrations will be monitoring all transactions to ensure «customers are able to both safely invest and transfer their crypto,» it said.

The beta phase follows months of «alpha phase» development and testing. 

«Through our alpha program, we sought feedback from a tight-knit group of customers