• Compound (COMP1-USD): This could be an interesting choice for crypto owners looking for passive income
• Polygon (MATIC-USD): The coin appears to be the best of the new Robinhood cryptos to disrupt finance
• Shiba Inu (SHIB-USD): Finally on Robinhood, thrilling for its many devotees
• Solana (SOL-USD): Some say this crypto could one day displace one of the big players

Retail investors love cryptocurrencies. And based on user metrics, they seem to love trading on Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD). So, it seems to reason that they’re going to be jumping all over the four new Robinhood cryptos.

The platform’s users have long been able to trade the major crypto coins — Bitcoin (BTC-USD), Ethereum (ETH-USD), Dogecoin (DOGE-USD) and others. But the Robinhood trading platform has been careful to jump into new coins. And CEO Vlad Tenev said just a few months ago that Robinhood would be “very careful” about adding new cryptocurrencies.

But the popularity of the crypto space makes the coins difficult to ignore. And Robinhood realizes that if it wants to be seen as a platform superior to Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN), then it needs to jump into crypto waters with both feet.

How popular are cryptocurrencies? According to Marketwatch, cryptocurrency trading on global crypto exchanges reached $24.3 billion last year. That’s an increase of 600% — and its more revenue than was traded on the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq.

“This is quite a shift from only a year earlier, when the traditional exchanges had revenues four times greater than exchanges of the crypto world,” Optimas analyst Suzannah Balluffi said. “The old, venerable names like the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, Deutsche Borse and CME have all been left behind in the dust by crypto startups Binance and Coinbase.”

Undoubtably, cryptos are here to stay. Here’s a look at the four newest Robinhood cryptos.

COMP1-USD	Compound	$142.23	52-Week Range: $94.13-$911.20
MATIC-USD	Polygon	$1.44	52-Week Range: $0.2985-$2.92
SHIB-USD	Shiba Inu	$0.00002538	52-Week Range: $0.00000077-$0.00008845
SOL-USD	Solana	$108.04	52-Week Range: $19.14-$260.06

Robinhood Cryptos: Compound (COMP1-USD)

Compound is described by Robinhood as “an algorithmic, autonomous interest rate protocol built for developers to create open financial applications.”

Users can earn interest by depositing crypto into pools that can be lent to borrowers – kind of like how a traditional bank would operate, only with pools of cryptocurrencies.

That makes Compound an interesting cryptocurrency play for investors who are into passive income. Buy some Compound and, if the demand remains strong, just let your crypto work for you.

Unlike some other choices on this list, the laws of supply and demand may work in your favor if you own COMP1-USD. There are only 10 million tokens in play, which somewhat explains the cost of more than $140 each. Price forecasts are all over the board.

COMP1-USD is down roughly 33% so far this year.

Polygon (MATIC-USD)

Polygon traces its history to 2017, and the MATIC token was launched two years later. Polygon is a decentralized proof-of-stake blockchain that operates as a sidechain to Ethereum. It’s that relationship that has crypto backers interested.

As InvestorPlace’s Josh Enomoto wrote recently:

Disruption won’t go anywhere unless the myriad blockchain networks that are available today have a way of communicating and engaging with each other. Logically, isolated blockchain silos would defeat the purpose of extracting utility out of the underlying innovation. That’s where Polygon comes into the picture, providing a multi-chain system or an internet of blockchains.

If you’re interested in a true disruptor, then MATIC may be best of the new Robinhood cryptos. Trading at less than $1.50 each now, the MATIC-USD price is down about 45% since Jan. 1. The coin has a maximum supply of 10 billion.

Robinhood Cryptos: Shiba Inu (SHIB-USD)

Even if you’re only vaguely aware of cryptocurrencies, you’ve probably heard of Shiba Inu. As I wrote back in February, Shiba Inu was created as a joke alternative to Dogecoin. Which in turn was created as a joke to Bitcoin.

But when you consider that SHIB-USD jumped by more than 49 million percent last year (that’s not a typo), then the joke isn’t so funny. Because there was serious money to be made with SHIB.

Shiba Inu is plentiful, to be sure. It was created in 2020 with an initial supply of 1 quadrillion tokens. Half was given to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who burned 90% of his supply and gifted the other 10%.

But there’s no danger of a Shiba Inu shortage. And it’s true that this pupcoin is still trading at fractions of a penny. But opening up to the Robinhood platform could help retail traders and Shiba Inu devotees start pushing the crypto higher.

Solana (SOL-USD)

Solana is another one of those cryptos that is built on the idea of some day displacing one of the big players. In this case, SOL-USD devotees think that it could be a challenger to Ethereum, only cheaper and faster.

Founded in 2017, it operates on a proof-of-stake blockchain that claims to process up to 65,000 transactions per section.

The platform boasts quick transaction speeds and lower fees. It’s also dipping into the NFT marketplace via the OpenSea NFT platform.

But trading Solana is just as volatile as trading one of the microcoins like Shiba Inu. But in the case of Solana, you’re dealing with some real money. The current price of a SOL-USD token is about $108, but it’s been as high as $260 as recently as November.

So far this year, Solana is down roughly 42%. There is no maximum supply of SOL-USD.

On the date of publication, Patrick Sanders had long positions in BTC, ETH and SHIB. He did not have (either directly or indirectly) any other positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.