Robinhood unveiled one of the biggest updates to its strategy for the cryptocurrency market by launching Robinhood Chain, its Ethereum-based layer 2 blockchain. The initiative is part of a plan to bring the traditional financial market closer to DeFi applications, while expanding the offering of digital products for users in various regions of the world.
During an event held in London, the company's executives detailed the new infrastructure and the platform's next steps. According to Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood's senior vice president and general manager of crypto and international operations, the proposal is to make decentralized finance more accessible.
"Decentralized finance opens up possibilities that go beyond what traditional finance can offer, but, historically, it required technical knowledge to be used. We are bringing together the best of traditional finance and DeFi and, in doing so, expanding financial ownership to every corner of the world."
Robinhood Chain was developed with Arbitrum technology and arrives on mainnet with partners such as Uniswap and Pleiades to provide liquidity and trading infrastructure. The blockchain also integrates with services such as Alchemy, BitGo and Chainlink, in addition to features geared toward lending, financing and other DeFi protocols.
The company describes the new network as a permissionless blockchain, prepared for artificial intelligence applications and built especially to support tokenized real-world assets.
Another highlight of the announcement was the launch of the new Stock Tokens, assets that allow uninterrupted trading, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. In addition to buying and selling, investors will be able to use these tokens in DeFi protocols as collateral for operations and participation in lending pools.
The assets represent tokenized debt securities issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited. They economically track the performance of the corresponding stocks, but do not grant ownership rights or equity participation in the original securities.
Stock Tokens will be accessible to qualified users in more than 120 countries through Robinhood Wallet. Trading will be available on decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap, Rialto, Lighter, 1inch and Arcus. The products remain unavailable to investors in the United States and also have restrictions in markets such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
The company also reorganized its product line by renaming the old stock tokens traded in Europe to Classic Stock Tokens, differentiating them from the new generation based directly on Robinhood Chain.
Another important announcement involves Robinhood Wallet, which now offers access to perpetual futures contracts through the decentralized exchange Lighter for eligible users in certain jurisdictions. The feature expands trading options within the app and marks a deeper collaboration between the two companies.