As Americans turn their attention to stock and cryptocurrency markets, trading platforms Robinhood and Coinbase took the top two slots in Apple’s App Store last week.
According to Sensor Tower, Robinhood took the top spot on Friday, followed by crypto trading platform, Coinbase. TikTok came in third place. The surge in popularity coincides with Coinbase’s Nasdaq debut on Wednesday when bitcoin surpassed $64,000 for the first time.
The rise in popularity reflects an increase in retail trading during the pandemic, as well as a “meme stock” community centred on companies like GameStop. After a group of traders on Reddit deployed a short squeeze in January, the video game store became a household name.
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This isn’t the first time Robinhood has topped the charts. The brokerage firm was the most successful app in the Apple and Google app stores in January, at the height of the GameStop controversy. Another trading app, Webull, came in second. The top ten also included Coinbase, Square’s Cash App, and Fidelity. During the height of the GameStop frenzy, Robinhood, which shut down the buy-side of those stocks, received backlash on social media, and its CEO was later called to testify in front of Congress.
Amid the booming interest in America, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria (SEC Nigeria) has exercised its legal authority and reminded participants and investors that only authorized securities can be sold to the Nigerian public. To put it another way, international stocks such as Tesla Inc., Apple, Amazon, Google, GameStop and others that are not currently listed in Nigerian jurisdiction should not be sold to Nigerian residents or businesses.
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As a result of the new SEC directive, young Nigerians who have been using the new invest tech service providers to help diversify their portfolios face new challenges especially with the CBN ban on crypto transactions.
This creates a sizable problem particularly for traders that would at least want to earn above the 18% inflation rate.
What this means:
- Retail investors are paying more attention to financial applications as they have witnessed massive gain in assets like crypto and meme stock.
- Nigerians may find it difficult to benefit from international retail platforms with the SEC announcement.
- SEC regulation may hamper the fundamental ideology for globalization especially from a finance perspective.
SEC did not ban foreign stocks from being sold. They asked the apps to register with the SEC. Chaka has begun the process. The providers of this service drivewealth is registered with the US SEC and FINRA as a stock broker. Why do we want to be different????? Robin hood is also registered. Nairametics should do better.