Robinhood Pushes Deeper Into Crypto With Own Blockchain, Tokenized Stock Launch

Yahoo

3 days ago

Digital brokerage Robinhood (HOOD) is extending its crypto footprint with a slate of new offerings, including developing its own blockchain network based on Arbitrum ARB and launching tokenized stocks trading, the company announced on Monday.
The firm today has debuted its stock token offering, issued on the Ethereum layer-2 Arbitrum, for European users, giving access to over 200 U.S. equities and ETFs witt around-the-clock trading during weekdays. With the launch, Robinhood is expanding its crypto-focused EU app with tokenized stocks into an "all-in-one investment app powered by crypto," the company said in a release shared with CoinDesk.
The firm also confirmed it's building its own layer-2 blockchain network optimized for tokenized assets. The upcoming chain, based on the Arbitrum tech stack, is aimed to support 24/7 trading, self-custody and cross-chain bridging of tokenized assets. A release date has not been disclosed, but persons familiar with the matter said it could go live around later this year, early next year.
The company announced it's opening access to private equity tokens, starting with tokenized shares in OpenAI and SpaceX.
"We will continue to work with regulators and bring the entire Robinhood ecosystem on-chain," chairman and CEO Vlad Tenev, said during the launch event in Cannes, France.
HOOD shares, traded on Nasdaq, rallied to a fresh record high of $91, advancing over 8% during the Monday session.
Robinhood's push into tokenized assets comes as competition with digital asset exchanges is heating up to offer a unified trading hub for all kinds of financial instruments. Asset tokenization is a read-hot sector that aims to bring real-world assets including equities, funds, real estate onto blockchain rails promising cheaper, faster and more efficient settlements and around-the-clock trading. It's potentially a huge opportunity: the tokenized asset market could grow to $18.9 trillion by 2033, a report by Ripple and BCG projected.
A slew of popular crypto exchanges, including Bybit, Kraken and Gemini have just recently started to offer tokenized stocks to users, while Coinbase reportedly also seeks regulatory approval to do so.
Robinhood's Tenev earlier this year touted asset tokenization as a way to expand investor access that assets that are limited to the wealthy, and advocated for clear U.S. regulations to tokenize securities.
While rivals have teamed up with regulated asset tokenization specialists to offer stock tokens, Robinhood is building its own tokenization engine to do so, Seong Lee, head of crypto products, told CoinDesk in an interview.
As part of the firm's crypt push, Robinhood is rolling out perpetual futures, a popular derivative instrument among crypto traders, for European users. Trades are routed through Bitstamp, one of the world's longest-running active crypto exchange which Robinhood acquired for $200 million.
The firm has also introduced crypto staking for U.S.-based investors starting with Ethereum's ether ETH and Solana's SOL SOL that lets token holders earn rewards without leaving the application.
Additionally, Robinhood will add crypto rewards to its credit card offering later this fall, allowing U.S. customers to invest cashback automatically in digital assets.UPDATE (June 30, 15:45 UTC): Adds Robinhood introducing private equity tokens of OpenAI, SpaceX. Adds HOOD price action.