Robinhood Launches ‘AI-Native’ Ethereum Layer-2 Network, Tokenized Stock Trading

Publicly traded brokerage and financial app Robinhood launched the public mainnet Wednesday for its Ethereum layer-2 network, Robinhood Chain. 

The Arbitrum-powered network aims to “bridge the gap” between crypto and the traditional finance world, opening with integrations from BitGo, Chainlink, and partnerships with Uniswap and Pleiades to offer dedicated automated market making for public liquidity and prop trading, respectively. The network, described by Robinhood as “AI-native,” also supports trading by AI agents.

“Decentralized finance unlocks possibilities beyond what traditional finance can offer, but  historically, it has 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, expanding financial ownership to every corner of the globe,” he said. 

The firm’s network will also unlock additional productivity for what it calls “Stock Tokens,” or tokenized, on-chain representations of shares in the world’s biggest companies like Nvidia and Apple, allowing users in eligible jurisdictions—which doesn’t include the U.S.—to place them in lending pools and use them as collateral in DeFi. 

The firm is also expanding the feature set within its Robinhood Wallet, opening up perps trading directly in-wallet via decentralized perpetuals exchange, Lighter and enabling eligible U.S. users to use Robinhood Earn, a feature that allows individuals to lend dollar-backed stablecoin USDG for around 7% APY.

Beyond its new features, a core focus of the brokerage’s latest announcement is a major geographic expansion, including welcoming users from Canada and soon Singapore, which will add to its nearly 28 million existing customers. Additionally, Robinhood expects to offer crypto services to users in the U.K. in the near future.

Shares in Robinhood (HOOD) finished the day up more than 8% on Wednesday and now nearly 20% in the last month, changing hands at $108.65. Even at that mark, though, it remains more than 29% off its 52-week high of $153.86. 

Last month, the firm cut about 10% of its staff amid a severe downturn in revenue from its crypto offerings, which dropped 34% quarter-over-quarter to $134 million from $221 million.