The deposit bonus
Robinhood pays a percentage when you move crypto onto the platform during a promotional window. The company has run these repeatedly: a 2% crypto deposit bonus and a 3% cash bonus have both appeared, each attached to a specific date range with a published end date.
Two features distinguish this from the offers elsewhere in this section.
It is proportional, not fixed. Coinbase pays a set amount for a qualifying trade. Robinhood pays a percentage of what you move, so the headline scales with the size of your transfer. For somebody moving a substantial position, the absolute number gets large quickly — which is precisely why the conditions attached are heavier.
It is campaign-based. There is no standing offer, only whichever window is currently running. That means any specific percentage quoted on a third-party page, including this one, describes a campaign that may have closed. Check the live terms.
Exclusions apply. Reported terms have excluded USDC from deposit bonus eligibility, which follows the industry pattern of not paying for value that arrives and departs without generating activity.
The transfer match
A separate programme, frequently confused with the deposit bonus, and it works on different rails.
The transfer match applies to brokerage account transfers made through ACATS and to IRAs. It does not apply to ACH deposits. If you were planning to move cash in and collect a match, that is the wrong mechanism.
Reported structure: a base match of 1%, rising to 2% with a Robinhood Gold subscription, with an additional 1% where the asset value exceeds a stated threshold. Gold is a paid monthly product, so the higher rate has a cost attached that needs including in the arithmetic.
This is genuinely aimed at people consolidating brokerage accounts or moving retirement assets, not at somebody opening their first crypto account. Judged against that audience it is a reasonable acquisition offer.
The locks, in detail
Here is the part that separates Robinhood's headline percentages from the money they appear to describe. Both programmes attach long commitments.
Eighteen months, and five years
Deposit bonus: reported terms specify the reward value cannot be withdrawn for 1.5 years. It can be exchanged for crypto or equities inside the platform during that period, but it cannot leave.
Transfer match: matched funds must remain in the account for 5 years, or Robinhood can claw back a prorated portion if you withdraw early.
Neither of these is hidden and neither is unreasonable from the platform's side. An acquisition payment is worth making only if the customer stays, and these terms are how that is enforced.
What they do mean is that the percentage is not a discount, it is a payment for a commitment. Five years is a long time in this industry — longer than several of the platforms in our collapsed platforms guide managed to survive. Whether you are willing to commit to a venue for that period is a separate question from whether the percentage looks attractive, and it is the more important one.
Gifting crypto
Robinhood appears in our research partly through a different route: people looking for how to gift crypto on the platform rather than how to claim a bonus.
The company has offered a crypto gifting feature with a genuine presentation layer — customisable e-gift cards delivered by email or text, with the recipient given a window to accept and the sender able to retract before acceptance. That retract-before-acceptance mechanic is unusual and quite well designed.
The limitation is the familiar one for any in-platform gifting: it works best when the recipient already uses that platform. For somebody with no account anywhere, an open crypto voucher avoids forcing them to register with a specific broker to collect a present. Our gifting guide covers choosing between the methods.
How to value it
Three questions produce an honest number.
- What is the locked period worth to you? Money you cannot withdraw for eighteen months or five years has a cost, even when it is notionally yours.
- Would you have moved the assets anyway? If you were already consolidating brokerage accounts, a match on a transfer you were making is close to free. If the offer is the reason for the move, the calculation is different.
- What is the tax position? A bonus is generally income at its value on receipt, which becomes your cost basis. See our tax guide.
Where it sits
Robinhood's percentages are the largest in this section by some distance, and its commitments are the longest. Those two facts are the same fact.
For somebody genuinely consolidating long-term holdings at a platform they intend to keep using, it is among the better offers we cover. For somebody chasing a percentage on money they may want back next year, it is the worst possible fit, and the appeal is strongest precisely where the fit is worst.