Robinhood opened the public mainnet of Robinhood Chain on Wednesday—an Arbitrum-powered Ethereum layer-2 it’s calling “AI-native.” The network is designed to bridge traditional finance and crypto, and it starts with Stock Tokens.
What are Stock Tokens? Onchain versions of shares in companies like Nvidia and Apple. Users in eligible jurisdictions (not the US) can drop them into lending pools and use them as DeFi collateral. That’s the kind of thing you simply can’t do inside a normal brokerage account.
The network launched with integrations from BitGo, Chainlink, Uniswap, and Pleiades for market-making. Robinhood Wallet users also get perps trading via decentralized exchange Lighter, and eligible US users can lend USDG stablecoin for around 7% APY through Robinhood Earn.
“Decentralized finance unlocks possibilities beyond what traditional finance can offer, but historically it has required technical expertise to navigate,” said Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s SVP and GM of Crypto and International.
Beyond the tech, Robinhood’s expanding geographically—opening up to Canada and soon Singapore, with UK crypto services expected soon. They’ve got nearly 28 million existing customers.
HOOD shares closed up more than 8% on Wednesday to $108.65, up nearly 20% for the month. They’re still 29% off the 52-week high though. Last month Robinhood cut about 10% of staff as crypto revenue dropped 34% quarter-over-quarter to $134 million.
