Robinhood Wants to Redo Wall Street on the Blockchain

Gizmodo

a day ago

Robinhood, the company behind one of the most popular trading apps for everyday investors, just revealed a sweeping new vision for the future of finance. And its bold plan seems to leave traditional Wall Street institutions behind.
The company announced a daring set of new products this week from Cannes, France. These offerings are designed to move traditional financial assets, like company stocks, investment funds (ETFs), and even complex trading tools called derivatives, entirely onto the blockchain.
The clear message? Crypto isn't just for digital money anymore. It's for everything.
The most attention-grabbing announcement was stock tokens. Think of these as digital versions of U.S. company stocks and ETFs. Now, for the first time, European customers can get access to these major American investments without needing a traditional stockbroker, a big Wall Street firm, or even being physically in the U.S.
Unlike buying regular shares through a brokerage, these stock tokens exist on Arbitrum, which is a Layer 2 blockchain built on top of Ethereum. Imagine Ethereum as a busy main highway for digital transactions; a Layer 2 like Arbitrum is a faster, less congested side road that uses the main highway for security, making transactions quicker and cheaper. These tokens can be bought and sold 24 hours a day, five days a week. Robinhood claims they come with no commission fees or extra charges from them, and even pay out dividends (portions of a company's profit distributed to shareholders, now paid directly to token holders). Over 200 different stocks and ETFs are available.
In simple terms: your investment portfolio now lives on a digital, decentralized ledger.
At our recent crypto event, we announced a limited Stock Token giveaway on OpenAI and SpaceX to eligible European customers. While it is true that they aren't technically 'equity' (you can see the precise dynamics in our Terms for those interested), the tokens effectively give…
— Vlad Tenev (@vladtenev) July 2, 2025But Robinhood isn't just using existing blockchain technology. It's actively building its own custom Layer 2 blockchain. This new digital network is specifically designed to power the tokenization of real-world assets. This means taking things that exist in the physical world, like company shares, investment funds, and potentially even real estate in the future, and turning them into digital tokens that can be easily traded and managed on the blockchain.
Robinhood's ultimate goal, they say, is to create a financial system where assets trade around the clock, are easily moved between different digital wallets (called seamless bridging), and can be self-custodied. Self-custody means you, and only you, directly control your digital assets, rather than a bank or brokerage holding them for you. This new blockchain will also support staking (more on that below) and seamless trading without needing traditional banks or clearinghouses, which are financial middlemen that ensure trades between buyers and sellers are completed smoothly and securely.
It's a vision that, if it succeeds, could replace many core functions of today's financial infrastructure: from the stockbrokers who execute trades to the custodians who hold assets and the exchanges where they change hands.
Beyond the stock tokens, Robinhood also announced crypto perpetual futures for its European customers. These are advanced trading tools that allow investors to bet on the future price of cryptocurrencies, with the option to use leverage (trading with borrowed money to amplify potential gains or losses). Unlike traditional futures contracts, these 'perpetuals' never expire, offering continuous exposure to crypto asset prices.
For eligible U.S. customers, Robinhood is also launching crypto staking, starting with popular cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Solana. Staking is a way to earn passive income by 'locking up' your crypto to support the operations and security of a blockchain network. Think of it like earning interest in a savings account, but for your digital assets.
And there's more for customers in both regions: European users will gain access to smart routing for crypto trades (a system that automatically finds the best price for your trade by checking multiple exchanges). Both U.S. and EU customers will see Cortex, an AI-powered investing tool, and U.S. customers will soon get a crypto rewards credit card. Cortex is an artificial intelligence assistant designed to help customers quickly understand price movements and market shifts in real time.
While the U.S. financial market remains heavily regulated, Robinhood is strategically using its established presence in Europe to experiment with a groundbreaking financial future. In this vision, assets are converted into digital tokens, they are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and their movement is managed by computer code on a blockchain rather than by traditional clearinghouses. The idea is straightforward but revolutionary: replace Wall Street's old infrastructure with the efficiency and transparency of a blockchain.
Robinhood's strategy is clear: make investing simpler and more widely available, using the fundamental technology of cryptocurrency to achieve this. Often, this can happen without the user needing to be a 'crypto native' (someone deeply immersed in the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology).
If successful, this isn't just a series of new product launches; it could be a blueprint for how digital assets quietly but fundamentally reshape the global financial system from within. The 'Trojan Horse' has truly entered the city gates, and the world is waiting to see what emerges.