Robinhood is Here to Win

Robinhood made waves at EthCC in Cannes today, unveiling a slew of crypto-enabled features that are poised to distinguish the exchange from its competition and accelerate the adoption of onchain financial activity.

HOOD shares surged as much as 11% on the day to establish new all-time highs north of $90, meanwhile, the attitude across the crypto industry was one of palpable excitement for the implications of Robinhood’s announcements.

Here’s everything you need to know about Robinhood’s plans – and why they matter. 👇

📢 What Robinhood Announced

Online stock brokerage Robinhood dove into the deep end of blockchain technology with what is perhaps the greatest real-world asset tokenization push to date.

Beginning today, Robinhood Europe investors can access American capital markets through tokenized U.S. stocks, ETFs, and pre-IPO opportunities (including OpenAI and SpaceX).

These instruments will be initially issued on the Arbitrum L2, but similar to crypto-native exchanges like Coinbase, Robinhood intends on launching a proprietary L2. This chain will eventually serve as the home for Robinhood’s tokenized stock offerings.

While Robinhood Europe was previously a crypto-only app, these changes will transform it into a crypto-powered everything investment app, one which empowers eligible E.U. customers to trade 200+ American stocks and indexes 24/5 (with zero commissions, no added spreads, and dividend support).

Thanks to Robinhood’s now-completed acquisition of Bitstamp, eligible European investors will also begin receiving access to 3x leveraged perpetuals, with a complete rollout expected by the end of this summer.

Although the flashiest updates were focused on Robinhood’s European consumer base, Americans weren’t excluded from new feature launches.

The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance greenlit custodial crypto staking operations in May, and Robinhood is taking advantage of this newfound regulatory clarity. American clients in select states can now earn staking yield on their crypto assets, starting with ETH and SOL.

Coming this fall, U.S. Robinhood Gold credit card holders will be able to automatically convert their cash back rewards into their crypto asset of choice, and for a limited time, all crypto transfers to Robinhood will receive a 1% deposit boost – with the chance to double it to 2% if Robinhood total crypto deposits hit $500M.

Additionally, Robinhood now offers “tax lots” to U.S. clients on crypto assets. This feature enables users to strategically select the cost basis they want to sell crypto assets at, helping them optimize for tax bills.

View these product announcements and more in the full keynote address below!

🧐 Why It Matters

Robinhood’s sweeping announcements signal a pivotal inflection point, both for the company and the broader crypto industry.

Coinbase has long been the poster child of crypto-native innovation, but with Robinhood now offering tokenized stocks and flirting with its own L2 ambitions, the balance of power is beginning to shift.

Although Coinbase is indeed seeking approval to sell tokenized stocks to Americans, Robinhood’s position as an SEC-regulated exchange gives it an undeniable leg up that could enable it to be first-to-market with such products.

Considering that Robinhood is already implementing tokenized stocks for European users, the exchange may enjoy superior liquidity in its tokenized markets, which could result in better pricing and deeper order book depth to facilitate user transactions.

Retail mainstay Robinhood may be the most notable platform to unlock tokenized stocks access for users, but the platform is not alone in these efforts; Kraken is also moving to offer tokenized stocks to non-U.S. users and Dinari just secured the first ever American license to issue tokenized stocks.

Fragmented tokenized offerings are certainly undesirable, but the fervent push to create them brings the long-promised convergence of TradFi and DeFi that much closer to reality. For crypto, this development signals the commencement of the maturation phase – where utility begins to meet the tech’s potential.

Conquering onchain real-world assets remains a necessity for mainstream blockchain adoption, and in this light, Robinhood’s tokenization announcement becomes foundational. A consumer-facing crypto-enabled equity platform that onboards millions is exactly the type of catalyst that could move the needle on global crypto usage!

While the race to create the next-generation exchange is far from settled, one thing is clear: Coinbase now finds itself surrounded by worthy adversaries.