Robinhood revenues drop without meme stock trades, Shiba Inu coin surges

The value of investment trading company Robinhood Markets plummeted Wednesday, caused in part by third quarter earnings that showed a slowdown in crypto trading revenues. On Tuesday, Robinhood said its revenue growth slowed to 35% in the Q3, down from 131% in the spring and 309% at the start of the year.

Robinhood’s loss for the quarter totaled $1.32 billion, or $2.06 per share. A shade more than $1 billion of the loss was related to stock-based compensation expenses it recognized with its initial public offering of stock. Robinhood revenue rose in value from $269.5 million to $364.9 million.

Part of the reason for Robinhood’s strong start to the year was the popularity of meme stocks like Gamestop and AMC. It appears Robinhood did not get a similar boost in its value from such stocks in Q3.

But it wasn’t just meme stocks driving that value in early 2021. Dogecoin boosted Robinhood’s value in Q2. Now, hundreds of thousands of people are pushing Robinhood to list the new hot meme coin on its trading platform.

Shiba Inu coin calls itself the “Dogecoin killer”. While one Shiba Inu costs a tiny fraction of a penny, it hit a record value Wednesday. According to a change.org petition, nearly 350,000 people want to see Shiba Inu on Robinhood.

“Dogecoin has been a huge success for Robinhood, and its investors. We have all enjoyed the ride,” petition starter Tristan Luke said. “Shiba Inu is a similar meme coin with genuine potential, up 2000% in the last weeks!”

Robinhood has yet to say whether they’ll give Shiba Inu a second look. However, Robinhood CFO Jason Warnick told CNBC the company loves when meme moments like Dogecoin happen.

“It’s a great way to bring a lot of new customers onto the platform,” Warnick said. However, he added, “it’s gonna be impossible for us to accurately predict… revenue on a quarter-to-quarter basis”.

The rest of Wall Street wobbled Wednesday, a day after the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average set their latest record highs. Investors are busy reviewing the latest round of earnings from a variety of well-known companies.

Technology stocks gained ground. Microsoft rose 3.5% after reporting a 24% surge in profits last quarter as its cloud computing business bounded ahead.

McDonald’s rose 1.9% after reporting solid financial results as an easing of business restrictions helped sales growth. Coca-Cola rose 2.2% as sales grew along with the reopening of many venues and businesses over the summer.

General Motors fell 3% after reporting mixed financial results as the broader auto industry continues to face production problems because of a chip shortage. Rival Ford will report its results later Wednesday. Apple, Amazon and Starbucks will report their results Thursday.