Robinhood (HOOD) topped its second quarter earnings expectations, posting revenue of $682 million and earnings of $0.21 per share. However, the trading platform fell short of Wall Street estimates for user growth.

Citizens JMP director of financial technology research Devin Ryan joins Asking for a Trend to break down Robinhood's earnings and how the platform could benefit from the 2024 presidential election.

Ryan explains that Robinhood had an "outstanding quarter" as it saw revenue grow 40% year over year. He notes that the company delivered great profitability and saw new net deposits — which he sees as a core driver — rise 40% more than it did in 2023.

"From the beginning, Robinhood offered, I think, a really intuitive and seamless experience for trading for new-to-the-market investors. And they had a lot of success with that. But I think the vision from the beginning was always to expand out, both from a customer perspective, then also from a product perspective," Ryan says. "I think you're seeing that show up just in the types of deposits that are coming in. So that's driving a lot of momentum."

As the crypto industry rallies behind former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, Ryan believes that crypto is increasingly becoming a bipartisan issue: "Whoever's in the White House, you're going to see more productive conversations around crypto than we've seen over the past couple of years. So I think we're moving in the right direction."

He explains that regardless of who wins the election, the broader industry will be in a better spot, which could give Robinhood and other trading platforms a boost.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Asking for a Trend.

This post was written by Melanie Riehl

Note: This post was updated to properly update the earnings results