Robinhood enables US users to gift crypto for the holidays

Trading app Robinhood has announced that its users will be able to gift friends and family crypto over the holiday season.

In a Thursday announcement, Robinhood said its users — with the exception of those in Hawaii and Nevada — could send as little as $1 in Bitcoin (BTC) or six other cryptocurrencies with a personalized digital card starting on Dec. 22. To ensure the crypto is not lost by a recipient unwilling or unable to use it, the trading app has set up a 14-day window to accept the gift, at which point the user will not be charged.

"Crypto gifting is a great way for our customers to help remove the emotional and economic barrier of their friends and family taking their first step into crypto," Robinhood Crypto COO and Lead Christine Brown told Cointelegraph. "It is also an easy and immediate gift for those that are already crypto fans."

Robinhood’s offering is similar to those currently offered by Block, formerly Square, in addition to PayPal and Coinbase. It’s unclear if the trading app intends to make the crypto gift giving feature available after the holidays. 

Cointelegraph reported on Dec. 7 that a study by lending firm BlockFi showed many Americans would be willing to accept cryptocurrencies including BTC, Ether (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE) as gifts this holiday season. However, the same survey revealed that the majority of respondents did not have the skills to transfer crypto.

Related: Gifting crypto to loved ones this holiday? Educate them first

With more than 22 million users, Robinhood is currently testing its digital wallet feature expected to launch for all customers in early 2022. Since going public on the Nasdaq in July, the share price of Robinhood (HOOD) has steadily declined from an all-time high of $70.39 on Aug. 4 to $18.16 at the time of publication, a drop of roughly 74%.