Crypto exchange FTX launches free stock trading without payment for order flow with eye toward becoming an 'everything app'

• • FTX is launching stock trading to a batch of US customers before a full rollout in the coming months.
  • The service won't use payment for order flow, and FTX won't turn a profit from it.

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX plans to give its customers access to traditional markets with a new stock trading platform, the Wall Street Journal first reported.

FTX will unveil the new service to a small batch of US customers Thursday before the company fully rolls out the platform later in 2022.

"What we eventually want to offer is an everything app for financial services," Brett Harrison, FTX.US's president, told the WSJ in an interview.

The fee-free service mirrors the likes of popular apps like Robinhood, but FTX said it won't use the controversial process known as payment for order flow to complete customers' trades.

But that means FTX will miss out on a key revenue stream and won't turn a profit on its stock arm. Payment for order flow accounts for as much as 80% of revenue on some platforms like Robinhood.

FTX is the second largest cryptocurrency exchange behind Binance. FTX co-founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried disclosed on May 13 a 7.6% stake in Robinhood through Emergent Fidelity Technologies.