Bitcoin Daily: Investors Pour Over $100 Million In New Bitcoin IRA Program; Robinhood To Expand Crypto Business

Bitcoin IRA, a digital IRA letting users buy, sell and swap cryptocurrencies for their retirement accounts, now has over $100 million invested into its new program, IRA Earn, according to a press release.

The new program offers interest rates of up to 6 percent annually on cash, 2.7 percent on Ethereum and 2 percent on Bitcoin, the release stated.

Retirement account owners will now be able to use the program in order to boost yearly returns for their Traditional or Roth IRAs and/or 401(k)s, according to the release. Users with $100,000 could then earn $30,000 in IRA Earn in around five years, for example.

Highlights of the program include high interest rates, low minimums, monthly payouts and the lack of a lockup period, the last of which means users can earn interest without long-term commitments, the release stated.

In other news, Robinhood, a popular brokerage app, is looking at boosting its crypto team this year, CoinDesk reported.

CEO Vlad Tenev, speaking on a video Q&A with customers, said Robinhood would be making “a huge investment” and hiring many people in that field, according to the report.

As to why, he pointed to the spike in demand Robinhood had witnessed, with 6 million new customers now trading crypto since this year began. Tenev said the platform’s focus right now is making sure the system is stable enough to withstand growth, the report stated.

Lastly, Canada-based communications provider Sky Global has been accused of helping criminal organizations launder millions of dollars in cryptocurrency via encrypted phones, CoinDesk reported, citing a March 12 indictment.

The company sold encryption devices to criminal organizations in order to allow for activities like drug trafficking, the indictment stated, per CoinDesk. In addition, the company allegedly helped those organizations transfer the illegal funds into bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The indictment also claimed Sky Global obstructed investigations through deleting evidence remotely when the devices in question were seized by law enforcement.