Robinhood (HOOD) launched the public mainnet of Robinhood Chain, an Arbitrum-based Layer 2, bringing 24/7 tokenized stock trading to 120+ countries, decentralized USDG lending at 7% APY via Morpho, perpetual futures on commodities/ETFs/FX, and AI-powered agentic trading for U.S. crypto users. The brokerage — with $307B in platform assets and 27.7M funded accounts — is positioning itself as the front door to onchain finance, directly competing with Coinbase Base, crypto exchanges, and legacy brokers simultaneously.
Robinhood (HOOD) launched the public mainnet of Robinhood Chain, an Arbitrum-based Layer 2, bringing 24/7 tokenized stock trading to 120+ countries, decentralized USDG lending at 7% APY via Morpho, perpetual futures on commodities/ETFs/FX, and AI-powered agentic trading for U.S. crypto users. The brokerage — with $307B in platform assets and 27.7M funded accounts — is positioning itself as the front door to onchain finance, directly competing with Coinbase Base, crypto exchanges, and legacy brokers simultaneously.
On July 1, 2026, at its "The World Is Flat" event in London, Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) launched the public mainnet of Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain built on Arbitrum technology. The launch represents the most aggressive crypto infrastructure move by a major U.S. retail brokerage to date.
The announcement included six major product launches:
1. Robinhood Chain Mainnet Live An Arbitrum-based L2 described as "AI-native and purpose-built for real-world assets." The chain uses automated market-making from Uniswap and Pleiades, with Chainlink as its official data and cross-chain oracle. The chain went through approximately four months of testnet development before today's mainnet launch.
2. Tokenized Stocks in 120+ Countries Stock Tokens are now live through Robinhood Wallet in 120+ countries (excluding the U.S.). Unlike Robinhood's earlier EU-only "classic stock tokens" (price-tracking derivatives), the new tokens are tokenized debt instruments redeemable for cash through authorized participants, with plans to enable redemptions for underlying securities. They are portable across third-party wallets (Ledger, Trust Wallet) and DeFi platforms (Uniswap, 1inch) — a fundamental shift from walled-garden to open infrastructure.
3. Robinhood Earn — 7% APY DeFi Lending A decentralized lending product integrated directly into the main Robinhood app, allowing U.S. users to lend USDG (Robinhood's dollar-backed stablecoin) through the Morpho lending protocol. Estimated annual yield: 7%.
4. Expanded Perpetual Futures European users can now trade perpetual futures on commodities, ETFs, and foreign exchange — up to 10x leverage — in addition to existing crypto perps. Robinhood also integrated Lighter DEX through Robinhood Chain.
5. AI Agent Trading (Agentic Accounts) Eligible U.S. users can connect AI models to Robinhood's trading infrastructure for crypto analysis and strategy execution, with user-defined capital allocation and risk parameters. This extends Robinhood's existing AI agent features (which already support equities and options) into crypto markets.
6. International Expansion Crypto trading launching in the U.K. "soon." Canada now live following the WonderFi acquisition. Singapore expansion supported by a new Capital Markets Services license from the MAS.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Platform Assets Under Administration | $307 billion (up 39% YoY) |
| Funded Accounts | 27.7 million |
| 2025 Total Net Revenue | $4.5 billion |
| Q1 2026 Revenue | $1.07 billion (up 15% YoY) |
| Q1 2026 Crypto Revenue | Down 47% YoY |
| Tokenized Stock Countries | 120+ |
| USDG Lending APY | ~7% |
| Perpetual Futures Leverage | Up to 10x |
| L2 Infrastructure | Arbitrum |
| Oracle Partner | Chainlink |
| Recent Layoffs | 10% of workforce (290 employees) |
Robinhood's competitive universe now spans:
As Artemis and North Island Ventures noted: Robinhood's median customer balance of ~$12,000 is small compared to legacy incumbents (20x larger), but its Gen Z and Millennial demographic positioning positions it to benefit from an impending intergenerational wealth transfer.
This is the first time a major U.S. retail brokerage has built its own blockchain and put tokenized equities, DeFi lending, derivatives, and AI agent trading under one roof. The implications cut across three dimensions:
Tokenized RWA scale: While other firms have experimented with tokenized stocks in limited jurisdictions, Robinhood is deploying to 120+ countries with a user base of 27.7M funded accounts. That is an order-of-magnitude larger distribution channel than any crypto-native platform currently offers.
DeFi goes mainstream: Robinhood Earn's 7% APY product — built on Morpho — puts DeFi yields directly inside the main app used by tens of millions of Americans. The UX abstraction of self-custody lending into a familiar brokerage interface could be the bridge that brings DeFi to mass-market users.
AI agent infrastructure: Robinhood's Agentic Accounts for crypto represent one of the first large-scale implementations of AI-assisted trading infrastructure from a regulated U.S. financial institution — users connect their preferred AI models to Robinhood's trading rails while maintaining control over capital allocation.
The launch also comes amid a challenging crypto market: Bitcoin ETFs suffered their worst month ever in June ($4.5B in outflows), and Robinhood's own crypto revenue fell 47% YoY in Q1 2026. The company is making its biggest crypto infrastructure bet at the bottom of the cycle, not the top.
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