The online brokerage Robinhood is doubling down on its crypto ambitions. On Monday, the company announced that it was letting customers in the European Union trade U.S. stocks and ETFs on a blockchain. Dubbed Robinhood Stock Tokens, the assets—basically shares of popular companies in a crypto wrapper—will have zero commission fees, and holders will receive dividend payments within the brokerage’s app.
Robinhood plans to eventually move the tokenized stocks over to its own layer 2 chain that it described in its press release as being “based on Arbitrum.” Layer 2 chains are built atop primary blockchains like Ethereum, and are typically faster and more efficient to use.
Robinhood didn’t specify when it would launch its new blockchain, but it said the new chain plans to support trading 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “Our latest offerings lay the groundwork for crypto to become the backbone of the global financial system,” Tenev said in a statement.
The company’s stock jumped 4% to a high of $91 after Robinhood publicized the announcement late Monday morning.
Robinhood’s tokenized stock offering and planned blockchain comes as part of a broader push by the firm to expand its crypto products offering under a newly friendly regulatory regime in Washington, D.C.
As part of Monday’s announcement, Robinhood also said it was letting its European users trade crypto perpetual futures, a type of crypto derivative that lets traders bet on the future price of a cryptocurrency.
And the online trading app said it will let U.S. customers stake cryptocurrencies—when crypto holders put their digital assets in escrow to support the security of a blockchain. Users will first be able to stake Ethereum and Solana. Robinhood did not say which other tokens it planned to allow users to stake.
Update, June 30, 2025: Added in how Robinhood’s stock responded to the announcement, examples of tokenized stocks on offer
