One Article to Understand Robinhood’s Ambition Behind Its All-In Bet on On-Chain Finance

Tao Zhu, Jinse Finance

Summary: On July 2, 2026, Robinhood Chain officially launched its public mainnet today. This L2 is built on Arbitrum technology, with Uniswap among the first partners. Simultaneously, Stock Tokens were launched, supporting over 120 countries. Eligible users can trade 24/7 via Robinhood Wallet. Robinhood mainnet, stock tokens, AI trading, and DeFi all come together – the on-chain finance era has arrived.

I. Robinhood's Five Major Strategies for Global Expansion

Today, Robinhood Markets held the keynote "Robinhood Presents: The World is Flat" in London, announcing Robinhood's global expansion plans and product vision. Robinhood is breaking down traditional financial barriers, allowing customers to access global markets like never before.

Robinhood Chain Officially Launched

The Robinhood Chain mainnet is built on the Arbitrum platform, meeting institutional-grade standards and natively connecting with Robinhood's on-chain users. This Layer 2 blockchain provides an out-of-the-box environment for developers. Initial partners include Uniswap and Pleiades. Uniswap is deploying a dedicated AMM as the primary public liquidity protocol, while Pleiades is deploying a proprietary AMM as the primary proprietary trading platform.

Robinhood Chain is deeply integrated with industry-leading platforms such as Alchemy, BitGo, and Chainlink. It features fast block generation times and out-of-the-box DeFi primitives, such as lending. Robinhood Chain natively supports AI technology and is built for real-world assets, providing developers with a permissionless environment for seamless innovation.

Stock Tokens

Currently, the Robinhood wallet has launched stock tokens in over 120 countries, though specific availability varies by jurisdiction. Eligible users can unlock various functions through the new stock tokens, such as 24/7 trading on the Robinhood chain and enhancing asset yields through activities like deploying tokens into lending pools and using them as collateral for trades in the broader DeFi ecosystem.

Stock tokens are tokenized debt securities issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited that provide economic exposure to the underlying securities but do not grant investors any legal rights or beneficial interests in those underlying securities, nor any rights against the issuers of those underlying securities.

Eligible users can trade spot through decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap, Rialto, Lighter, Arcus, and 1Inch via the Robinhood wallet.

Robinhood Earn

Robinhood is gradually rolling out Robinhood Earn to eligible U.S. users. This is the first decentralized lending product accessible directly through the Robinhood main app. Robinhood Earn allows users to lend out their USD-backed USDG via self-custody wallets, with an expected annual percentage yield of 7%. The product is insured through Lloyd's of London and RELM to protect users from losses in the event of cybersecurity or smart contract attacks. The underlying lending infrastructure is based on the Morpho protocol and supported by industry-leading partners such as Steakhouse, Ethena, Spark, and Maple.

This means Robinhood is no longer just a trading platform; it is beginning to introduce users into the DeFi ecosystem.

Agentic Trading

For a long time, large institutions have used high-frequency algorithms to capture market opportunities, often putting retail traders at a disadvantage. To bridge this gap, Robinhood is preparing to launch intelligent agent accounts for cryptocurrencies. With Robinhood's "Trading MCP," eligible U.S. traders can connect their chosen AI models to Robinhood's data sources and tools. Users' intelligent agents can continuously scan vast amounts of data points and execute trading strategies the moment market conditions change. The intelligent agent trading feature for cryptocurrencies will soon be available to eligible U.S. traders at no additional cost.

International Expansion

Robinhood already serves nearly 28 million customers across 38 countries and three continents. To accelerate its international expansion, Robinhood plans to launch crypto services in Canada, introduce crypto trading in the UK, expand perpetual contract products in Europe, and obtain a Capital Markets Services license in Singapore to advance local operations. Robinhood's goal is no longer limited to the U.S. market but to build a global financial platform.

II. Understanding Robinhood's Ambition

"The World is Flat" is not just a product launch; it's Robinhood's manifesto to establish itself as the future financial infrastructure. Robinhood is enacting the myth of transforming from a trading platform into on-chain financial infrastructure.

Johann Kerbrat, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Crypto and International at Robinhood, said: "DeFi unlocks possibilities that traditional finance cannot offer, but historically, navigating DeFi has required specialized technical knowledge. We are combining the strengths of traditional finance and DeFi to extend financial ownership to every corner of the globe."

Robinhood's move is to build itself into a financial super app for the on-chain era: tokenizing traditional financial assets, hosting these on-chain assets on its own public chain, improving user trading efficiency through AI Agents, and introducing DeFi, allowing users to earn on-chain yields while trading.

Specifically, first, more and more trading platforms are building their own blockchain infrastructure. Now, Robinhood has joined this camp, potentially unifying businesses such as trading, wallets, payments, and asset issuance on-chain. In the future, Robinhood may control the entire value chain, not just the trading gateway. Second, Robinhood is closely linking stocks with the DeFi world. As Robinhood stated, eligible users in the future will not only be able to trade stock tokens 24/7 but also deploy stock tokens into lending protocols to earn yields or use them as collateral to participate in more DeFi applications. Thus, stocks will have no trading time limits, no cross-border investment procedures, shortened settlement cycles, and ultimately integration with DeFi. Stocks might just be the first step; in the future, more traditional financial assets could be tokenized, with stocks, bonds, and funds becoming foundational assets in the DeFi world. Third, Robinhood is trying to change trading methods with AI. Robinhood's Agentic Trading allows users to connect large language models to Robinhood's data interfaces and trading tools. In the future, ordinary traders can also achieve AI-automated trade execution after AI identifies opportunities. Finally, the globalization vision is further helping Robinhood expand its business space. Business plans in Canada, the UK, Europe, and Singapore will give wings to Robinhood's ambitions.

III. Why is Robinhood Betting on On-Chain Finance Now?

Improved Regulatory Environment

Whether it's the improvement of stablecoin regulatory frameworks or traditional financial institutions openly deploying RWA, the industry is receiving a clear signal – the crypto industry is heading towards a more certain future. For Robinhood, the increasingly clear regulatory environment means it can more boldly advance innovative businesses like stock tokenization.

Hot RWA Track

RWA is becoming the new consensus among global financial institutions. Whether it's BlackRock's tokenized fund BUIDL, Franklin Templeton's on-chain money market fund, or JPMorgan's Tokenized Collateral Network, more and more traditional financial institutions are starting to explore the RWA track. Robinhood can directly bring traditional assets like stocks and ETFs into the on-chain ecosystem, becoming a bridge connecting crypto and the real world.

Brokerages Seeking Transformation

Just a few weeks ago, Robinhood announced a workforce reduction of approximately 10%, with expected related restructuring costs of about $28 million. This move aims to transition to a leaner, more "efficient" operating model. At the same time, Robinhood's crypto business performed weakly in the first quarter, with cryptocurrency revenue down 47% year-over-year to $134 million and native app cryptocurrency trading volume down 48% to $24 billion.

Robinhood's new plan may reverse the current difficulties.

Summary

The line between cryptocurrency and traditional finance is increasingly blurring. Robinhood is steadily expanding beyond stock and spot crypto trading to establish itself as on-chain financial infrastructure.

As Forbes put it: Robinhood no longer positions itself as a brokerage firm for young investors. It wants to become a gateway to a faster, more global, and more speculative financial market, where stocks, tokens, derivatives, prediction markets, and AI agents are increasingly integrated within the same application.