As stock markets crashed this year, Robinhood, the free stock-trading app loved by Gen Z, introduced a cash card. Amid a dramatic end to a 13-year bull market that has now destroyed more than $9 trillion in value since the turn of the year, the March launch seemed ill-timed.
The S&P 500 had plunged and the FTSE 100 was on course for its worst three-month stretch since the start of the pandemic. The threat of recession loomed ever larger.
Robinhood, however, was desperate. The start-up that turned investing into a video game-like experience for a generation of young people, offering free shares and no minimum account balances, was losing customers. Those who traded monthly fell to 15.9 million in March, a 10 per cent drop
