Robinhood appoints insider Christine Brown to oversee its crypto operations after the team tripled in size this year

• Robinhood has appointed Christine Brown, vice president of product operations, as its new COO.
• She will run the company's crypto division and compliance teams after the unit expanded this year.
• Robinhood saw a 460% jump in crypto customers from the fourth-quarter of 2020.

Robinhood said on Thursday it has appointed a chief operating officer to oversee its cryptocurrency division.

Christine Brown, who joined Robinhood as a senior product manager in 2017, will oversee all crypto operations and compliance, the company said.

Robinhood's team tripled in size this year as surging interest in cryptocurrencies among young investors made the company expand its trading services. 9.5 million customers traded crypto on its online platform in the first quarter of 2021, a 460% jump from 1.7 million customers in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Brown's decade-long experience in product management led her to serve as vice president of Robinhood's Product Operations. She will continue to retain her current role, alongside her new position of COO.

"For the past few years, I've been focused on building traditional financial infrastructure, but I've always been fascinated with cryptocurrency and its potential to create a more open financial system," Brown said in a statement.

Robinhood's announcement has followed massive trading outages during significant stock market events. The company said these interruptions are unacceptable, but that there could be intermittent disruptions due to a continued interest in crypto.

The company currently offers seven tradable coins: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and Litecoin.