[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee] U.S. financial platform Robinhood added $25 million worth of bitcoin to its balance sheet.

CryptoSlate, a blockchain media outlet, reported on Oct. 7 (local time) that Robinhood described the addition as part of an asset diversification strategy.

Johann Kerbrat (요한 케르브라트), senior vice president of crypto and international at Robinhood, disclosed the bitcoin addition and said Robinhood views bitcoin as a strategic asset. He added that the company firmly believes in the future of crypto.

The size of the addition is not large compared with Robinhood's financial capacity. As of June 30 this year, Robinhood had $5.36 billion in cash and cash equivalents and $155 million in stablecoin holdings. The $25 million bitcoin addition is less than 0.5 percent of the cash and cash equivalents at the time. The market can see the move as closer to a signal that the company's capital management direction is changing than a large-scale bet on the bitcoin price.

Robinhood has focused on expanding customers' access to trading digital assets. It has also spent money to expand services such as tokenisation, staking and institutional trading, along with infrastructure acquisitions. This time, it went a step further than customer services by directly allocating part of company funds to bitcoin.

The decision is seen as a step beyond Robinhood's previous stance. Shiv Vamra (쉬브 버마), the company's finance executive, said during last year's third-quarter earnings release that the company spent considerable time discussing investing company funds in digital assets such as bitcoin.

The key issue was capital allocation. Vamra said shareholders can already buy bitcoin directly on the Robinhood platform, and the company needs to weigh whether to invest company funds in digital assets or put them into engineering, product development and business growth. At the time, the company said it was still reviewing the matter.

The company did not say whether the $25 million investment is a one-off or the start of a regular corporate finance programme. That will determine whether the move remains a symbolic signal or leads to a meaningful capital management strategy going forward.

Robinhood has steadily expanded the base of its crypto business. In June last year it acquired crypto exchange Bitstamp for about $224 million, securing institutional and retail customers in multiple markets and regulatory-response infrastructure. It then accelerated its global expansion by securing additional infrastructure in Europe and Asia.

In the second quarter this year, the combined crypto trading volume at Robinhood and Bitstamp totalled $40 billion. Trading reached $18 billion on the Robinhood app and $22 billion on Bitstamp. But crypto trading revenue fell 38 percent from a year earlier to $100 million due to a slowdown in trading. Its share of total net revenue also declined to 8 percent from 16 percent.

Robinhood has generated revenue through customers' digital asset trading while also investing hundreds of millions of dollars in related infrastructure and acquisitions. The bitcoin addition means it has begun holding digital assets with its own funds beyond trading services and infrastructure investment. Shareholders are also affected not only by the performance of the company's crypto business but also by price fluctuations in its bitcoin holdings.

I'm excited to share we're adding $25 million of Bitcoin to our balance sheet. We believe firmly in the future of crypto and view this as a strategic move for our overall asset diversification.