On the day in question, Robinhood posted to say this is what it was doing, and it explicitly stated that it was doing so to protect its customers from volatility. It absolutely said nothing at all about doing it because of regulatory or other requirements.
Robinhood has since deleted that post from its site.
And no matter how you cut the cake, if you put your money into Robinhood then you risk losing it when Robinhood changes the rules.
It seems that the commenters in this thread have at least two views on what you call “changing the rules.” The fact of the matter is, no one guarantees you 100% uptime access to the markets. I think this episode should be a lesson for everyone, RH sympathizers and haters alike, that it probably makes a lot of sense to have well-funded accounts at at least 2 brokerages, if you plan to be an active trader.
If Robinhood hadn’t disabled GME buys, one possibility was RH customers not being able to trade any stocks. Which one do you think is the better choice, limiting a single stock, or potentially losing the ability for all customers of RH to trade all stocks?
Robinhood has since deleted that post from its site.
And no matter how you cut the cake, if you put your money into Robinhood then you risk losing it when Robinhood changes the rules.
That’s the message people need to hear.