Key facts
- Robinhood launched Robinhood Chain, an Arbitrum-powered Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain.
- The chain supports tokenized stocks and DeFi applications, enabling users to lend tokenized shares and use them as collateral.
- Robinhood Earn offers an estimated 7% APY on USDG stablecoin lending for eligible US users.
- Perpetual futures trading is expanding in Europe to commodities, forex, and ETFs, with up to 10x leverage.
- Robinhood plans to launch crypto trading services in the United Kingdom.
- HOOD shares closed up over 8% following the announcements.
Robinhood has launched the public mainnet for its Layer 2 blockchain, Robinhood Chain, built on Arbitrum technology. The company touts its new chain as “AI-native,” supporting trading by AI agents directly onchain and designed to bridge Robinhood’s traditional brokerage with its crypto stack. The network opened with integrations from BitGo and Chainlink and partnerships with Uniswap and Pleiades for market-making. The centerpiece is Stock Tokens, onchain versions of shares in companies like Nvidia and Apple, which users can drop into lending pools and use as collateral in DeFi. Robinhood also opened perpetual futures trading directly in its wallet through the decentralized exchange Lighter, and launched Robinhood Earn for eligible US users, allowing them to lend the USDG stablecoin for around 7% APY. Robinhood shares closed up more than 8% following the news, and Lighter’s LIT token jumped 15%.
In parallel, Robinhood is expanding its perpetual futures offering in Europe to include commodities and forex, providing up to 10 times leverage and round-the-clock trading. The company also announced plans to launch crypto trading services in the United Kingdom.
Separately, Venice AI, an AI platform focused on privacy, announced it raised $65 million at a $1 billion valuation, with Dragonfly leading the round. The VVV token associated with Venice AI jumped 10% on the news.
In broader crypto markets, major cryptocurrencies saw gains, with Bitcoin rising 5% to $61.3k and Ethereum up 5% to $1,650. Solana led the gains, jumping 10% to $82. Bitcoin ETFs experienced $296 million in net outflows, while Ethereum ETFs saw $15 million in inflows. Forward Industries announced it added $38 million worth of Solana to its treasury. The Solana Foundation launched onchain governance, and the Aave lending protocol saw a spike in new wallets.