In short
- Robinhood launched the Robinhood Chain mainnet, an “AI-native” Ethereum layer-2 network.
- The chain also combines the company’s traditional offerings with its crypto products, starting with Stock Tokens.
- Shares ended the day up more than 8% on the news, though still at a 52-week low.
Crowdsourcing and financial services firm Robinhood launched its mainnet on Wednesday Ethereum network layer-2, Robinhood Chain.
The A choice-a managed network with the aim of “bridging the gap” between crypto and the traditional financial world, opening and integrating from BitGo, Chainlink, and partnerships with Uniswap and Pleiades to provide the creation of a dedicated independent market for public finance and prop trading, respectively. The network, described by Robinhood as “AI-native,” also supports trading with AI agents.
“Stable currencies open up opportunities beyond what traditional currencies can offer, but historically, they have required technical expertise to navigate,” said Robinhood SVP and General Manager of Crypto and International Johann Kerbrat, in a statement.
“We’re bringing the best of traditional finance and DeFi together, and in doing so, we’re expanding financial ownership around the world,” he said.
The company’s network will also open up other products that it calls “Stock Tokens,” or tokens, displayed on the shares of the world’s largest companies such as Nvidia and Apple, allowing users in the right places – which does not include the US – to put them in rental pools and use them as collateral in DeFi.
The company is also expanding the features inside the Robinhood Wallet, opening the trading of perps directly in the wallet using regular exchanges, Lightness and enabling qualified US users to use Robinhood Earn, a product that allows people to borrow stablecoin USDG backed by dollars at about 7% APY.
Beyond its innovation, a key focus of the company’s latest announcement is its geographic expansion, including welcoming users from Canada and soon Singapore, which will add to its nearly 28 million existing customers. Additionally, Robinhood hopes to offer crypto services to UK users in the near future.
Shares in Robinhood (HOOD) ended the day up more than 8% on Wednesday and are now about 20% over the past month, changing hands at $108.65. Even then, it remains up 29% from its 52-week high at $153.86.
Last month, the company cutting about 10% of its workforce amid a sharp decline in revenue from its crypto offerings, which fell 34% quarter-on-quarter to $134 million from $221 million.
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