Robinhood Dogecoin Error - GameRevolution

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Dogecoin is trending upward, and that means people are looking to buy. However, many who are interested are wondering if they can buy Dogecoin on Robinhood instead of a separate exchange. While Robinhood is largely known for stock trading, it does support cryptocurrency. Unfortunately, due to high demand, it seems like some users are getting errors on Robinhood that Dogecoin trades may not execute right now.

Can you purchase Dogecoin on Robinhood?

Fortunately for those looking to get into Dogecoin, Robinhood does support cryptocurrency exchange. The confusing part of buying Dogecoin on Robinhood is that crypto isn’t kept separate from stocks, which makes it easy to overlook the fact that it can be done at all.

To buy Dogecoin on Robinhood, a user must:

Open the app.

Go to the search tab

Enter “Dogecoin,” and press search

Tap buy at the lower right portion of the screen.

Enter the amount of USD they wish to exchange for Dogecoin.

Alternatively, Robinhood users can trade on any device using a web browser. The interface is a bit different for the desktop version, but the process to purchase crypto is very similar.

Buying and Selling Dogecoin in Robinhood is handled just like any stock. It’s very easy to keep track of how much the currency is currently worth, its value over time, how much a user has invested and how much their investment has gained or lost.

One thing to note is that Robinhood only allows cryptocurrency trading in the US. Those outside of the US will have to use a different service or a dedicated crypto exchange. Users should also be wary of Robinhood halting trading. As it showed with GME, the company isn’t adverse to snubbing users to protect its investors.

Despite being a “meme” currency, Dogecoin has largely avoided the bad reputation of Bitcoin. It was first introduced on December 8, 2013, and has had an enthusiastic fanbase ever since. It’s managed to maintain visibility over the years, despite not achieving the popularity of other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Why won’t Robinhood let me buy Dogecoin?

There could be several reasons why users can’t buy Dogecoin on Robinhood. The most benign reason, and the most likely, is that so many people are trying to buy right now that the system can’t handle it. The easiest fix for this error is to wait. Unfortunately, that’s incredibly frustrating when an investment opportunity is this volatile.

The official Robinhood Twitter hasn’t released a statement about the errors users are currently experiencing when trying to trade Dogecoin. Hopefully, the reason behind these technical difficulties is benign.

Brave New Coin

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I’m Not Selling…Because Robinhood Won’t Let Me

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The markets are bouncing today following the biggest one-week drop off since the financial crisis in 2008. The Dow Jones Industrial plummeted over 3500 points last week, representing the largest one-week point drop in the history of the index. Today the markets are beginning to recover, and investors are buying the dip. At the height of trading excitement, millennials’ favorite trading platform, Robinhood, is suffering a system-wide outage.

The over 10 million users on Robinhood’s free-trading platform have seen their current holdings frozen with no way to buy or sell any asset. I purchased Microsoft calls on Friday through Robinhood’s mobile applications, which I planned on selling today (Monday, March 2nd) for a quick turnaround but am unable to get out of my positions. This is a horrible sign for the mobile trading start-up. Robinhood is best known for its industry-disrupting offering of commission-free trading.

The markets are hitting record high volumes today, and Robinhood’s server infrastructure is not developed enough to handle its 10+ million users. Highly volatile markets with massive volume have never tested the company, and the fact that it has frozen everyone’s assets during the market biggest one day rally of the year is not only beyond frustrating but a massive red flag. This inability to service customers when they need it the most makes me question the firm’s ability to be recognized as a legitimate trading platform.

Robinhood’s platform demonstrated a flaw last fall when individuals were able to gain “infinite leverage” through a loophole that the company has since fixed. This shows the firm’s platform is still at an earlier stage in development than its competitors and has bugs.

Robinhood has lost the faith of many of its users, and the platform will undoubtedly lose a significant number of investors if they do not appropriately handle this shutdown. The platform’s nonexistent liquidity today is going to cost the company a lot. If Robinhood doesn’t have the cash to compensate those that lost money from this freeze appropriately, they risk not only losing clients but potential lawsuits.

Story continues

Millennial investors are going to turn to more mature trading platforms that can handle any level of traffic like Charles Schwab SCHW and TD Ameritrade AMTD, with SCHW recently announced a $26 billion acquisition of AMTD. E-Trade ETFC also stands to gain, with Morgan Stanley MS, who just announced it would be buying the company for $13 billion.

The consolidation of these “more legitimate” online brokerages will allow the companies to leverage competitive scale advantages that Robinhood’s young platform is unable to do. There have been discussions of the business taking its shares public. This outage will likely put this pending IPO on hold.

Take Away

The system-wide outage on one of the highest volume trading days could mark the end of Robinhood if it is not corrected and investors aren’t made whole. Robinhood’s 10+ million clients represents a massive potential market for competing trading platforms if these investors decide their money would be safer with one of the more mature brokerages.

As of 2 pm Eastern Standard time, the platform is still down, and there is no news or timeline about when to expect it back up.

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