Robinhood has launched a coordinated expansion of crypto products that includes staking for Ethereum and Solana, perpetual and micro futures, and tokenized U.S. stock exposure, moves that coincided with a near-doubled crypto revenue in Q2 and a double-digit lift in its share price. The package ties new retail derivatives and tokenization features to a planned Layer-2 blockchain designed to lower transaction costs and enable 24/7 market-like access for European customers.
Expansion of staking, derivatives and tokenization
Robinhood introduced staking services for U.S. customers, starting with ETH and SOL and allowing participation with low entry amounts. Staking is the process by which users lock tokens to support a proof-of-stake network in return for rewards.
In the European market the firm rolled out perpetual futures offering up to 7x leverage on additional coins such as XRP, Dogecoin and SUI, extending from initial BTC and ETH products; perpetual futures are derivative contracts that do not have an expiry date. In the U.S. it launched micro futures for Bitcoin, Solana and XRP to broaden access to leveraged retail trading.
The stock tokens product delivers derivative contracts that track the price of more than 200 U.S. stocks and ETFs and enables extended trading hours; tokenized stocks are representations of an underlying equity price through a blockchain-backed contract rather than direct share ownership. An early tranche of tokenized positions tied to private companies generated swift regulatory and public pushback after several firms distanced themselves from the offerings.
Separately, Robinhood has relisted assets including Solana, Cardano and XRP and added meme token PEPE, bringing its platform listing count to 19 assets, as it seeks to serve both conservative and speculative users. This broader asset mix is positioned to address differentiated risk appetites across the retail user base.
Robinhood disclosed development of an in-house Layer-2 blockchain, referred to as Robinhood Chain and built atop Arbitrum technology, targeted at tokenizing real-world assets and improving throughput and settlement economics. A Layer-2 blockchain is a secondary protocol that processes transactions off the base layer to increase throughput and reduce publishing costs while relying on the base layer for finality. The stated architectural goals are lower per-transaction fees, higher scalability and a tokenization framework that supports fractionalized exposure and extended trading windows.
The tokenization approach emphasizes an on-chain representation of asset prices and settlement batching to compress cost, framing the product as infrastructure to enable continuous trading and tighter integration between custody, market making and internal liquidity provision.
Regulatory scrutiny quickly followed the new suite. European authorities opened probes after tokenized offerings included positions tied to private firms that publicly denied authorization, while at the state level a cease-and-desist order targeted prediction markets, highlighting jurisdictional ambiguity for novel contracts.
For users, a material limitation remains: crypto assets held on the platform generally cannot be transferred to external wallets, leaving customers in a custodial model without FDIC or SIPC protections. This constraint underscores the counterparty and custody risk profile for users who choose to concentrate activity within the platform.
On fees, Robinhood markets a flat 0.55% crypto fee, positioned as competitive relative to certain tiered structures offered by rivals, a pricing choice aimed at capturing retail flow while integrating the firm’s own liquidity and exchange functions. The unified fee and execution structure is designed to consolidate trading activity while reinforcing Robinhood’s role as both venue and liquidity hub.
Robinhood’s combined product, infrastructure and geographic push signals a strategic pivot from a retail trading app to a vertically integrated digital asset platform. The coordinated rollout positions the firm to compete as a full-stack provider of crypto access, derivatives, tokenization and on-chain infrastructure.
