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Get Icy PremiumPublished on March 6, 2023
How to Use A Robinhood Crypto Wallet
Discover how to set up your Robinhood crypto wallet to buy, sell, and send cryptocurrencies
8 min read
Maybe you’ve heard of Robinhood before, and maybe you’ve even bought some crypto through their popular investing platform — but now they’ve rolled out their own self-custody crypto wallet, and it’s totally native to their brokerage app. But as a beginner, how the heck do you set it up? Is it within the Robinhood App, or is there a separate wallet app (like with Coinbase and Coinbase Wallet)?
We’ll walk you through everything you need to know about Robinhood’s new offering — but first, a little bit of background info on the company itself.
(Image: Robinhood crypto wallet from https://blog.robinhood.com/news/robinhood-wallet-ios)
What Is Robinhood?
Robinhood is a stock brokerage and crypto trading app that allows normal people to invest with greater control over their money. They’ve been around since 2013, and they offer users $0 trading fees — something that’s only common nowadays among brokerage apps because Robinhood set the trend.
And now, after offering crypto trading since 2018 but not allowing direct withdrawals from the app itself, they’ve rolled out their own crypto wallet.
What Is a Crypto Wallet?
Well, your crypto’s gotta be kept somewhere, right? Actually, a crypto wallet doesn’t store your coins themselves — it stores and protects your keys, which are what you use to access your coins (stored on their blockchain).
Thus, crypto wallet apps can also give you a way to interact with blockchains, and some of them (like Robinhood’s wallet) even allow you to directly buy cryptocurrencies. You can buy them on Robinhood’s brokerage app, but you can’t transfer them anywhere else — they’re stuck on the app until you sell them for fiat. With Robinhood Wallet, you’re free to send and receive crypto to and from anywhere you please.
Crypto wallets are also a far, far safer option for storing your crypto than keeping it on exchanges, which suffer hacks and attacks seemingly all the time. We highly suggest only moving your crypto onto an exchange if you’re looking to sell it immediately — and to move crypto off of exchanges and to your wallet as soon as you’ve purchased it.
How to Set Up and Use A Robinhood Crypto Wallet
Setting up your wallet is a pretty straightforward process, and no wonder — Robinhood has built its brand on being incredibly user-friendly and easy to use. You won’t need any prior technical or crypto-related experience to use it. Just follow these simple steps:
Create a New Wallet
- Download the Robinhood App and set up your account.
- Tap the person-shaped icon on the navigation menu and then tap the hamburger icon.
- Tap “Crypto Transfer Limits.”
- Tap “Activate blockchain transfers” and accept Robinhood’s crypto protection notice.
- Verify your identity (this could take a few days) and enable two-factor identification (2FA).
1. You’ll need a photo of your government-issued ID (passport, driver’s license, State ID, etc.) as well as a live photo of yourself to verify your identity.
2. For 2FA, you’ll need to download an authentication app. These are super simple to use, and we recommend [Google Authenticator.](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/google-authenticator/id388497605 "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/google-authenticator/id388497605") Turn 2FA to “On” in your settings, choose the authentication app you want to use, and tap “open app.” Once you’re in the authenticator app, it will prompt you to add Robinhood — confirm this, copy the code it gives you, and paste it into the Robinhood app. Then save the emergency backup code Robinhood gives you, and you’re good to go.- Next, choose “Activate crypto transfers.”
- Select “Create a new wallet.”
- Choose to either use Face/Touch ID or create a PIN.
- Choose between backing your wallet up with iCloud/backing it up manually/doing that later.
- You’re now ready to receive and send crypto!
Fund Your Wallet
Now that your wallet’s all set up, you’re ready to fund it with some crypto! You can fund your Robinhood wallet by using a Robinhood Crypto account or through another wallet or exchange. Here’s how:
If you bought crypto through your Robinhood Crypto account:
- Tap “Home,” then “Menu,” and then “Transfer from Robinhood.”
- Select the token you want to transfer and the network you’ll send it through.
- Choose the amount of crypto you’re transferring.
- Tap “Review,” then tap “Submit.”
- Enter the code from your authenticator app (see above in the previous section).
- Finally, tap “Return to Robinhood Wallet.”
- Your wallet is now funded!
If you’re sending crypto to your Robinhood wallet from another exchange or wallet:
- Choose the crypto you want to receive.
- Go to that crypto’s page in your Robinhood app.
- Select “Receive.”
- Copy your wallet address.
- Paste that address into the exchange or wallet you’re sending the crypto from.
- Complete the send request, and the crypto will arrive in your Robinhood wallet shortly!
Import a Pre-Existing Wallet
Robinhood Wallet gives you the option to import a previously existing Polygon or Ethereum wallet. You just need to have that wallet’s recovery phrase. Here are the steps:
- Tap “Import your existing wallet” in the navigation menu.
- Enter your wallet’s recovery phrase (manually or copy and paste).
- Choose “import.”
- Choose to either use Face/Touch ID or to set up a PIN.
- Choose to either back your wallet up through iCloud or manually, or to do it later.
- You can now open and use your imported wallet through Robinhood Wallet!
What Cryptocurrencies is Robinhood Wallet Compatible with?
Here’s the current list of all the cryptocurrencies you can send and receive with your Robinhood wallet:
Recovering Your Wallet: Robinhood Wallet vs. Metamask
It’s important to be able to recover your crypto wallet if the hardware it was installed on gets lost, you forget your password, or you just want to set your wallet up on a new device. One key difference here between Robinhood Wallet and other crypto wallets like Metamask is that while most wallets use recovery phrases (or seed phrases), Robinhood doesn’t.
As the name implies, recovery phrases serve as a backup master key for your crypto wallet. In the event your hardware wallet gets stolen or your mobile device gets lost, a recovery phrase can be used to re-authenticate access to your crypto wallet.
Instead of recovery phrases, Robinhood Wallet uses backups as its only recovery mechanism — meaning that it’s incredibly important to be proactive about backing up your wallet as soon as you create it.
To illustrate how this difference would play out, we’ll briefly explain the recovery process for both Metamask and Robinhood Wallet. If you lost the phone that your Metamask wallet was on, you could simply get a new device, download the Metamask app, click “Restore account?” on the login page, and enter your recovery phrase. You’ll then be able to log in to your account as normal.
With Robinhood Wallet, however, you would only be able to recover your account from an iCloud or manual backup. If you didn’t have a backup, there would be no way to recover your account. To recover the account, go into the app, select “Recover your wallet from iCloud,” and enter your password. Then, choose “Recover wallet” and choose either Face/Touch ID or create a PIN. You’ll be able to access your account after that.
Wrapping Up
Robinhood now offers a native crypto wallet to go along with its crypto brokerage offering. It’s imperative that you store your cryptocurrency in a wallet off of exchanges, and Robinhood Wallet is a great option.
With a wide offering of solid cryptocurrencies, easy setup, and a user-friendly app layout, even crypto beginners can set up a Robinhood wallet — just follow the simple steps above. It’s also possible to import previously existing wallets if you’re looking to merge them to one central location. An important note: Robinhood Wallet doesn’t have recovery phrases like most crypto wallets, so you’ll have to back your wallet up with iCloud (or manually) if you want to be able to access it if you lose your phone, for example.
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