It’s not you, England (read: Brexit). It’s us (read: glitches, etc.).
Robinhood is, of course, named for the mythical 12-century English outlaw. Present-day actual residents of Nottinghamshire, however, won’t be using it anytime soon. Our condolences to the British equivalents of Sears and Hertz, for your twenty- and thirty-something, bored and potential frightfully underinformed savior(u)rs are not coming any time soon.
In an email sent Tuesday to more than 260,000 people on its U.K. waiting list, the company, which was authorized by the U.K. financial regulator last year, said the launch was postponed indefinitely. The launch would have been Robinhood’s first expansion outside the U.S.
“The world has changed a lot over the past several months and we’re adapting with it,” Robinhood said in the email. “Our efforts are currently best spent on strengthening our core business in the U.S. and making further investments in our foundational system.”
By which the app which has democratized gambling on the markets means maybe doing something about the glitches that provide unlimited leverage and keep users from trading during those frenzied coronavirus days that those very users are fueling, and also the ones that make users kill themselves.
Robinhood Cancels U.K. Launch Amid U.S. Outages, Controversy [WSJ]