Robinhood stock has 64% upside as the crypto market triples to $7.5 trillion, Bernstein says

• Robinhood's stock could be a big beneficiary of the soaring crypto market, a Bernstein analyst said.
• Crypto trading was up 86% on the platform year-over-year in February.

Robinhood stock could be a big beneficiary of the bitcoin boom that's revitalizing the crypto market, with one analyst eyeing a jump of as much as 66% as customers of the popular trading app buy and sell more tokens.

"What we expect now is the risk-on side of the market to turn on, and I think crypto is going to play a big part of that," Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani said in a CNBC interview. "We expect the crypto market to triple from here to go to almost $7.5 trillion in terms of market cap. And given, obviously, that Robinhood is among the few brokers who provide a full-suite crypto platform, we expect that flexibility to kick in."

Bernstein analysts this week said that bitcoin's latest rally solidifies their view that the crypto will rise to $150,000 by the middle of next year, an outlook they first gave at the end of last year.

Robinhood's stock rose on Wednesday after the company posted upbeat monthly data for February. Its stock was trading at $18.04 on Thursday. Chhugani said the stock could go to $30.

The last two years have been challenging for Robinhood. After the retail trading boom of the pandemic catapulted the company into the spotlight, trading declined as lockdowns eased and people ran out of stimulus money to bet on the stocks and crypto.

But things could be turning around as bitcoin's bull run spurs more activity on the platform.

"Going forward, we think crypto is going to lead that charge in terms of its transaction revenues inflecting," Chhugani said.

A monthly update from the company showed total crypto trading volumes were up 86% year-over-year in February compared to the year before, more than the 41% increase in equities trading and 33% increase in options activity.

"Robinhood's 11 million active customers are active traders, they are young, they are self-directed, they trade equity options, which are their bread and butter," Chhugani said. "The propensity for that kind of customer base to trade crypto is fairly high because it kind of suits their demographic... I don't think the other broker platforms have that."

Chhugani also said he sees a spot ether ETF approval on the horizon.