Robinhood Moves Beyond Broking With Own Blockchain, Tokenised Stocks and FX Perpetuals

Retail brokerage Robinhood Markets set out a wide-ranging expansion of its product range at a London keynote event last week, launching its own blockchain, extending tokenised equity trading to more than 120 countries, and rolling out perpetual futures on foreign exchange and commodities for the first time. The event, styled "The World is Flat", was held at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich on 1 July. Robinhood said it now serves close to 28 million customers across 38 countries.

Robinhood officially launched to all UK customers in March 2024, following a multi-month waiting list, operating through Robinhood U.K. Ltd, and has since expanded the UK offering with margin, options, futures and a Stocks and Shares ISA.

Johann Kerbrat, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Crypto and International at Robinhood, set out the direction of the strategy: "We're bringing the best of traditional finance and DeFi together."

Robinhood Chain goes to public mainnet

The company launched the public mainnet of Robinhood Chain, a Layer 2 blockchain built on the Arbitrum platform, roughly four months after the network went live on testnet in February. Robinhood described the chain as AI-native and purpose-built for real-world assets, with lending and borrowing functions built in.

The network launches with day-one participation from decentralised exchange operator Uniswap, which is deploying an automated market maker to act as a primary public liquidity protocol, and trading firm Pleiades, which is deploying a proprietary automated market maker as a prop trading venue. Infrastructure providers Alchemy, BitGo and Chainlink are also integrated.

Tokenised shares extended across more than 120 countries

Robinhood's Stock Tokens are now available through the Robinhood Wallet in more than 120 countries, with availability varying by jurisdiction. The tokens allow round-the-clock trading and can be deployed into lending pools or used as collateral across decentralised finance venues, including Uniswap, Rialto, Lighter, Arcus and 1inch.

The tokens are issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited as tokenised debt securities that provide economic exposure to the underlying shares without conferring legal ownership. They are not available to US persons and are restricted in several markets, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland and the UAE. The first generation of the product, now renamed Classic Stock Tokens, remains available in the Robinhood Europe app.

Perpetual futures expand beyond crypto

Robinhood extended perpetual futures beyond cryptocurrency for the first time. Eligible users across 30 European countries can now trade perpetuals on commodities, ETFs and foreign exchange, including EUR/USD, gold, silver, WTI, Brent crude, the QQQ and EWY, with up to 10x leverage and 24-hour access. Robinhood said the products are rolling out in waves to eligible users.

Perpetual futures are also being added to the Robinhood Wallet through decentralised exchange Lighter, which has committed 11 million dollars of its LIT token to the Robinhood community.

New lending product and revised crypto fees

The company also introduced Robinhood Earn, a lending product that allows eligible US users to lend the dollar-backed USDG stablecoin through a self-custody wallet at an estimated 7% APY. The lending is powered by the Morpho protocol, with insurance procured through Lloyd's of London and RELM against cyber and smart contract exploits.

Robinhood also introduced maker order types for crypto traders in the US, with fees as low as zero percent for those providing liquidity on the platform.

Geographic expansion

The company confirmed it is live in Canada following its acquisition of digital asset firm WonderFi, with zero trading fees until 30 September, and that Robinhood Singapore has received a capital markets services licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. It also said it plans to launch crypto trading in the United Kingdom soon, through an entity that is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and currently provides market data but not crypto trading or custody.

Agentic trading extended to crypto

Robinhood said it would extend agentic trading, which allows users to connect a third-party AI model to their account to automate trading decisions, to crypto in the US. The feature follows the launch of agentic trading for equities and options last month, and will roll out to eligible users at no additional cost.

Robinhood had previously reported that first-quarter crypto transaction revenue fell by almost half year on year, from 252 million dollars to 134 million, and the mainnet launch followed within weeks of a decision to cut around 10 percent of the company's workforce.

Second-quarter results are due on 29 July. Robinhood shares rose around 8 percent on the day of the announcements.

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