Robinhood is launching its long-awaited crypto wallet next year and will begin testing the feature with users starting in October

• Robinhood is launching its crypto wallet early next year.
• It will test the wallet as part of an "alpha program" in October, Robinhood crypto COO Christine Brown told Insider.
• The uncapped waitlist for the wallet will be released on Wednesday ahead of the launch, she added.

Robinhood Markets is launching its long-awaited cryptocurrency wallet early next year after the online brokerage firm fine-tunes the new product based on user feedback, cryptocurrency chief operating operator Christine Brown told Insider.

The firm will test the new product as part of an "alpha program" in October. Alpha testing will enable Robinhood to give some users early access to pre-released versions of the app while receiving real-time comments.

"We're building in public," Brown told Insider. "We're going to have a handful of select customers come in and build alongside us ... We're giving them the ability to actually shape what we end up releasing later on."

The feedback they gather, Brown said, will be shared in the company's blog. The uncapped waitlist for the cryptocurrency wallet will be released on Wednesday ahead of the launch, she added.

Robinhood's users have been waiting for a cryptocurrency wallet feature, and rivals Coinbase and Gemini already offer their own.

Although Robinhood users can trade cryptocurrencies, a wallet will allow them to manage their holdings within the app. At the moment, users cannot store, manage, or swap digital assets in and out of their accounts, making exchanges like Kraken and CEX.IO more attractive for crypto traders.

But beginning October, some users will be able to store and secure their crypto on the investing app and receive supported cryptocurrencies into their account.

Though it has lagged some rivals in the space, chief product officer Aparna Chennapragada said the phased rollout of the wallet was deliberate. The popular trading app, she said, was prioritizing three things backed by research: general accessibility, product safety, and customer feedback.

"Robinhood has always been about broadening the access and expanding access to the market so we want to develop the product in a way that works for everybody," Chennapragada told Insider, adding that the wallet is meant for both "crypto nerds" and beginners.

With the new feature, she said Robinhood is building towards its vision of being a one-stop-shop service where users can trade stocks and cryptocurrencies.

CEO Vlad Tenev announced in July that the company was aware of the demand for a wallet, and users could expect one at some point. In March, he promised the company would get one to users "as fast as possible."

Robinhood, which says it will maintain commission-free crypto trades, said nearly 60% of its users bought or sold digital assets on its platform, and that many new customers made their first trade in crypto, rather than stocks.

The platform also launched its recurring crypto investment feature on Wednesday. It allows users to automatically invest in tokens on a set schedule.

Digital assets made up 51% of Robinhood's transaction-based revenue in the second quarter of this year, with dogecoin trades making up 62% of crypto revenue, the company said.