Robinhood Announces Global Expansion and Product Updates, Including Launch of Robinhood Chain Mainnet, 24/7 Tokenized Stock Trading, and Perpetual Contracts
Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum Layer 2 network based on Arbitrum, with initial partners including Uniswap, Pleiades, Alchemy, BitGo, and Chainlink, positioned as permissionless, AI-native, and focused on RWA.
Robinhood has launched Stock Tokens for tokenized stocks, allowing qualified users to trade 24/7 and use them as DeFi collateral, covering over 120 countries but not available to U.S. users; Wallet integrates with Lighter for perpetual contracts with no Gas fees; Earn is open to U.S. users for USDG lending, with an annual yield of about 7%.
Additionally, Robinhood has launched in Canada, obtained a MAS license in Singapore, is rolling out perpetual contracts in Europe, plans to launch crypto trading in the UK, and is planning U.S. Agentic Accounts to allow AI agent trading.
In terms of market mechanisms, global users as buyers accelerate the adoption of Robinhood's new features, with event-driven official announcements directing funds towards Robinhood Chain and the RWA ecosystem; Robinhood benefits from multi-regional expansion and product diversification to increase revenue, while traditional exchanges face pressure from the competition between DeFi and CEX integration.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Robinhood has previously expanded its crypto business through acquisitions like Bitstamp, and the launch of Chain and global licenses continues its transformation from a retail broker to a crypto super app, similar to the internationalization strategies of Coinbase and Kraken in recent years.
In terms of capital pathways, Robinhood is mobilizing liquidity resources through Layer 2 and partnerships, motivated by the goal of integrating into the DeFi ecosystem to expand its user base and trading volume, while also enhancing its competitive edge through AI agents and RWA functionalities.
Similar to Binance's global expansion or Coinbase's Layer 2 attempts, this case positions the crypto brokerage platform at a critical stage of product and regional expansion, deeply integrating CEX and DeFi.
Essentially, this represents a restructuring of the industry chain: Robinhood achieves CEX-DeFi integration through Robinhood Chain and Stock Tokens, with mechanisms that lower barriers through 24/7 trading and AI agents, driving the transition of crypto trading from centralized platforms to a hybrid AI-native ecosystem and accelerating the inflow of institutional and retail funds into RWA.
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