TL;DR Breakdown
- Robinhood to debut in stock market
- Robinhood slammed $70M fine
Popular crypto and stock trading platform Robinhood has applied with the US security and Exchange Commission to go public and raise funds through an initial public offering (IPO).
This is according to a Form S-1 registration the firm filed before the SEC on Thursday regarding its IPO plans. Robinhood notes that it intends to go on with its IPO for its Class A common stock.
The crypto and stock trading platform only awaits approval before floating its ‘HOOD’ stock on Nasdaq and raise $100 million in its debut.
The platform planned to launch on the Nasdaq market last month but had delayed its launch to July. It submitted its IPO plans even though the SEC is investigating it for frequent outages, concerns over its options trading, and other issues related to its business.
Robinhood and its $70m fine debacle
Robinhood’s plans to file for an IPO come in the wake of fine slammed by the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) on the firm. The regulators asked Robinhood to pay $70 million in fine related to its alleged “systemic supervisory failures” as well as restitution to customers it had allegedly caused “widespread and significant harm,” to.
The fine is the biggest financial penalty against the trading app by authorities.
Addressing the fine in the planned IPO document submitted to SEC, they claimed that they had agreed with FINRA to pay the $57 million fine, but only $4.5 million in restitution to affected users.
Beyond the fine, the trading app has been subject to many lawsuits from regulators, state authorities, and individuals related to the platform’s outages, account takeovers, and trading restrictions connected to the GameStop stock controversy.
The firm also said it anticipates paying $15 million to the New York State Department of Financial Services related to “anti-money laundering and cybersecurity-related issues.”
