Robinhood working on feature to let users invest spare change

Robinhood is exploring new features that would let customers invest spare change and better protect against volatility in cryptocurrency trading, according to code hidden inside a test version of the company’s iPhone app.

The online brokerage, which raised $2.1 billion in an IPO last month, is developing an option called "round up investments" that will allow users to invest their spare change in specific stocks, according to the hidden code. The code also shows that the company is exploring a rewards program that will give bonuses to those using the round-up feature.

Investing spare change has become an increasingly popular strategy for new and younger stock traders and is a key piece of competing apps such as Acorns, Chime and Wealthsimple. The code in the Robinhood app doesn’t indicate where the spare change will come from, but other apps typically connect to a debit or credit card. They round up purchases to the nearest dollar and automatically invest that difference. For example, if a user spends $3.75 on a cup of coffee, 25 cents will be put toward a chosen stock.

The code was discovered by iOS developer Steve Moser. Work on the features is no guarantee the functionality will be released. A Robinhood spokeswoman declined to comment.

Besides spare-change investing, the code also indicates that Robinhood is working to better guard against the vagaries of the cryptocurrency market through a feature called "price volatility protection."

Investors have proven eager to use Robinhood to trade cryptocurrencies. The company brought in about $87.6 million, or about 17% of its first-quarter revenue, from cryptocurrency transactions, up from just 3% in the same period in 2020.