Robinhood launched the public mainnet of Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum layer-2 network it describes as “AI-native.” The brokerage’s shares finished the day up more than 8%, closing at $108.65.
Robinhood launched the public mainnet on Wednesday for Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum layer-2 network the brokerage calls “AI-native.” The Arbitrum-powered network aims to bridge crypto and traditional finance, and it also supports trading by AI agents.
The chain opens with integrations from BitGo and Chainlink, plus partnerships with Uniswap and Pleiades for automated market making and prop trading. Robinhood SVP and General Manager of Crypto and International Johann Kerbrat framed the goal in a statement: “We’re bringing the best of traditional finance and DeFi together”.
Stock Tokens move on-chain
The network unlocks new uses for what Robinhood calls Stock Tokens — on-chain representations of shares in companies like Nvidia and Apple. Users in eligible jurisdictions, which do not include the U.S., can place them in lending pools and use them as collateral in DeFi.
Robinhood is also expanding its Wallet, adding perpetuals trading in-wallet through the decentralized exchange Lighter. Eligible U.S. users can now use Robinhood Earn to lend the dollar-backed stablecoin USDG for around 7% APY.
Shares rise as Robinhood expands abroad
The announcement centers on a geographic push, welcoming users from Canada and soon Singapore, adding to nearly 28 million existing customers. Robinhood expects to offer crypto services to U.K. users in the near future.
Shares in Robinhood finished the day up more than 8% on Wednesday and nearly 20% over the last month, changing hands at $108.65. Even so, the stock remains more than 29% off its 52-week high of $153.86.
The expansion follows a difficult quarter. Last month the firm cut about 10% of its staff as revenue from its crypto offerings dropped 34% quarter-over-quarter to $134 million from $221 million.
Source: Decrypt
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