The monetary companies supplier launched a flurry of headlines at its keynote occasion in Cannes, together with its personal native blockchain.
Fintech large and on-line dealer Robinhood opened its “To Catch a Token” keynote in Cannes with a bang as we speak, saying tokenized shares, perpetual futures, crypto staking — and its personal Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain.
Robinhood is launching entry to greater than 200 totally different tokenized U.S. shares and ETF tokens for its European merchants, that are eligible to obtain dividend funds straight within the Robinhood app. Whereas Robinhood’s tokenized inventory buying and selling is debuting with roughly 200 shares, it’s anticipated to broaden to 2,000 choices by the top of 2025.
The inventory tokens will initially be issued on Arbitrum, however can be launched on Robinhood’s personal Layer 2 blockchain sooner or later, which is at present in growth. The Robinhood blockchain can be permissionless and is anticipated to launch “subsequent 12 months,” Robinhood Crypto’s VP and basic manger, Johann Kerbrat, mentioned in an interview with The Defiant.
Robinhood’s co-founder and CEO, Vlad Tenev, mentioned on-stage on the agency’s occasion in Cannes as we speak:
“I imagine that tokenization goes to open the door to an enormous buying and selling revolution making it attainable to personal or fractionally personal property that have been by no means accessible earlier than.”
Tenev additionally introduced on the occasion that Robinhood will supply tokenized non-public firm shares of OpenAI and SpaceX — out there for its Europe-based customers — in what he mentioned he believes is a primary such providing for the 2 companies.
Talking concerning the non-public firm inventory tokens, Tenev mentioned “I imagine this could resolve the best inequities within the monetary house.”
Perpetuals Launch
The platform can also be introducing crypto perpetual futures with as much as 3x leverage, additionally for its European shoppers. Perpetuals will not be dwell but, however are anticipated to be totally operational by the top of the summer season. Orders on the platform are routed by means of Bitstamp’s perpetual futures change, which Robinhood officially acquired on June 2.
The activations will start unique to Europe, on the again of Robinhood’s newly-obtained MiCA (Market in Crypto-Property Regulation) license, which permits Robinhood’s crypto arm to broaden to 31 nations throughout the EU.
Kerbrat mentioned in an interview that the corporate is ready for regulatory approval to roll out tokenized shares and perpetuals within the U.S.
Robinhood Crypto is rolling out a distinct set of options for U.S.-based prospects — specifically, staking for Ethereum and Solana. The improve additionally comes with an expanded product suite, that includes good change routing for worth optimization, superior charts, and tax tons, which permit U.S. merchants to view and promote particular tax tons on their crypto trades with the intention to optimize taxable features and losses.
All-in-One Monetary App
Robinhood’s product supervisor, Seong Seog Lee informed The Defiant that the platform is turning into an “all-in-one funding product powered by crypto.”
“Within the EU as we speak you really can’t purchase the preferred U.S. ETFs straight like VOO and SPY, you need to purchase an alternate, however inventory tokens gives you the chance to realize direct publicity there…Customers are going to have the ability to commerce inventory tokens 24 hours a day Monday by means of Friday together with, quickly, the flexibility to self-custody your individual tokens,” he continued.
Self-custody options for tokenized shares is not going to be out there on day one, however as soon as dwell, the inventory tokens will be capable of be transferred to any self-custodial pockets, similar to Metamask or Rabby, doubtlessly opening the door to DeFi integrations with shares and ETFs.
The transfer is one other signal that the road between crypto and conventional finance (TradFi) funding platforms is beginning to blur, with many fintechs racing so as to add each crypto and blockchain-based equities.
Final week, on-chain buying and selling protocol Dinari turned the primary agency to receive approval from the U.S. Securities and Change Fee (SEC) to supply tokenized inventory buying and selling companies to U.S. shoppers. Earlier this month, Coinbase’s chief authorized officer informed Reuters that the change large is actively seeking approval from the SEC to supply the identical to its prospects.
Robinhood’s Huge 12 months
Tenev co-founded the platform in 2013 with the objective of democratizing finance and bettering accessibility for retail merchants. Tenev has been an outspoken advocate for crypto and blockchain through the years, and lately claimed the know-how will replace traditional finance within the coming years.
The platform is a top-ten dealer by property below administration (AUA), with $255 billion as of Might 31. Along with retail buying and selling infrastructure, the platform’s retirement account utilization is up 200% year-over-year, with $14.4 billion in property below custody (AUC) as of 2025.
Consequently, the corporate’s inventory, HOOD, has been on a tear lately and is up 290% over the past 12 months, reaching a brand new all-time excessive above $87 per share simply as we speak. HOOD instructions an over $76 billion market capitalization, and the corporate has generated $927 million in web income, a 50% year-over-year improve, as of its Q1 monetary report.
The information comes as crypto-related shares proceed to carry out, led by COIN and CRCL specifically. COIN lately reached its personal all-time excessive after saying the upcoming launch of crypto perpetual futures in the US on July 21. It stays to be seen whether or not or not this can function a green-light for Robinhood to additionally supply perpetuals within the U.S.
Disclaimer: This text has been up to date so as to add information about tokenized non-public firm shares and quotes from Robinhood’s CEO Vlad Tenev from the agency’s “To Catch a Token” occasion in Cannes on June 30.
