Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ: HOOD) and (NASDAQ: PYPL) initially seem like very different companies. Robinhood is an online brokerage which popularized commission-free trades. PayPal is one of the world's largest digital payment platforms.

But last year, Robinhood launched a virtual debit card which enabled its users to make in-store and online payments wherever Mastercard cards were accepted. It's also been testing out a new "Pay Request" feature for peer-to-peer payments, and it recently acquired the credit card start-up X1 to expand its reach beyond debit cards.

All these moves strongly suggest Robinhood aspires to become a more diversified fintech platform like PayPal -- which also provides in-store, online, and peer-to-peer payments, along with debit and credit cards through a partnership with Mastercard. So could Robinhood continue to evolve and expand over the next few decades, and become the next PayPal?

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Source Fool.com