Robinhood Chain Mainnet Launch Marks Ambitious Global Expansion and Product Vision
Robinhood Markets (Nasdaq: HOOD) launched the Robinhood Chain public mainnet as part of what it called “our most ambitious global expansion and product vision to date.” The company made the announcement at a London keynote, positioning the new blockchain as a bridge between traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Built using the Arbitrum Platform, the Robinhood Chain connects to Robinhood’s on-chain users and integrates with partners such as Uniswap, Pleiades, Alchemy, BitGo, and Chainlink. The chain supports real-world assets and DeFi functions like lending and borrowing. Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s senior vice president and general manager of crypto and international, stated the company is combining traditional finance and DeFi.
As part of the expansion, Robinhood introduced Stock Tokens, available in more than 120 countries via Robinhood Wallet, with access varying by jurisdiction. Eligible users can trade them 24/7 on Robinhood Chain and use them in supported DeFi applications, including lending pools and as trading collateral.
The company also began rolling out Robinhood Earn to eligible U.S. users. It is described as the first decentralized lending product available directly through the main Robinhood app. The product allows lending of USDG through a self-custody wallet at an estimated 7% APY. Insurance procured through Lloyd’s of London and RELM is intended to protect covered losses resulting from cyber or smart contract exploits, with lending infrastructure powered by Morpho.
Robinhood currently serves nearly 28 million customers across 38 countries. It plans to introduce crypto trading in the U.K., has already launched in Canada, and noted that Robinhood Singapore received a capital markets services license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). In Europe, commodity, ETF, and FX perpetual futures are expanding with up to 10x leverage. In the U.S., maker fees for crypto trading can drop to 0% based on volume.
Additionally, Robinhood launched a beta product that allows users to connect third-party artificial intelligence (AI) agents to dedicated brokerage accounts, expanding into AI agent trading for its customer base.