| When Robinhood, a startup that promises to make finance accessible for all, temporarily limited trading on GameStop, AMC, and other meme stocks, many retail investors were pissed that the fintech darling suddenly didn't live up to its name. The specific reasons may have been short-term and technical, but the choice looked corrupt to the average person. Here's why: The presence of a massive hedge fund as a main Robinhood partner and supporter of the short-sellers is exactly what Robinhood users are rallying against. The obvious conflict shows that "democratizing finance" was always somewhat of an ironic tagline. Retail investors are already pouring into competitor apps like Public and Webull, and looking for more shorts to take on. What can other startups learn? Here are some lessons: First, the push for decentralized systems will become more aggressive, positioning startups in the cryptocurrency and overall DeFi space well. On Thursday, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian spoke to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on a Twitch stream about the GameStop saga. "No one’s gonna wake up in a week and be like let's all go back to how it was. The collective public cannot unsee this, and so I think that there's going to be more and more energy to find decentralized solutions. There is so much energy to rally behind something that isn't capable of having the game rigged," Ohanian said. As Bitcoin reaches record highs, the Robinhood meltdown only further adds momentum to the asset. My second takeaway is that fintech startups in the retail trading space have never been more aware of the iron fist of regulatory pressure. While one company may have fallen on the sword this time, it doesn't mean that other startups are safe and/or able to promise open doors and a free market forever. The big question for early-stage fintech startups is how to innovate amid a revolution. That's all I can make sense out of for now, and there's more on the pod if you're interested. What do you think the long-term ramifications of this wild Wall Street week are on startups? E-mail me at natasha.m@techcrunch.com or DM me on Twitter @nmasc_. | 
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