It's entirely possible that RH doesn't care if the hedge fund loses all its money from the short and RH's buddy Citadel has to do a bail out to the tune of billions. In that scenario, RH still has to pause buy trades to save their own ass because they're running out of cash they need for the collateral that's required.
Do note that RH is not the only one that paused buy trades.
What I find more suspicious on RH's part is the timing of this all. RH should have known well before this week that GME was going to be a highly volatile stock. They should have already reached out to investors and banks for credit. They should have already had over a billion lined up to take on the volatility. I can understand other brokers like TD not being prepared because they might not be used to this Reddit-driven WSB volatility. RH, on the other hand, should have been ready. They've been aware of WSB and their antics since its inception. Yet they waited until Thursday to pause trades. That's where I start to go into conspiracy mode.
No, the issue is that Robinhood is a startup brokerage with likely very few actual assets.
Go try to get a $2M short term loan using a $1M home as collateral. You will get laughed out of every bank in the country.
Now try to get investors to invest $2M for half of your home, again the mirth and laughter will be rampant. Eventually you will find someone to lend or invest $700K but it will take months to close and meanwhile Robinhood is dead.
Reading closer, they supposedly got ~$500 million from its banks as loans and $1 billion from existing investors. My issue is in not knowing when this was all initiated and how long it takes for the money to go from its current place(s) to Robinhood.
Regardless, I am still learning all of this so thank you for replying and adding clarity.
Do note that RH is not the only one that paused buy trades.
What I find more suspicious on RH's part is the timing of this all. RH should have known well before this week that GME was going to be a highly volatile stock. They should have already reached out to investors and banks for credit. They should have already had over a billion lined up to take on the volatility. I can understand other brokers like TD not being prepared because they might not be used to this Reddit-driven WSB volatility. RH, on the other hand, should have been ready. They've been aware of WSB and their antics since its inception. Yet they waited until Thursday to pause trades. That's where I start to go into conspiracy mode.