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Key Takeaways
- Robinhood Chain’s mainnet is now live, making tokenized Stock Tokens available in more than 120 countries through Robinhood Wallet.
- Robinhood Earn lets users lend USDG stablecoin for an estimated 7% yield, though the rate isn’t guaranteed.
- The launch follows a 10% workforce reduction and comes alongside expansions into the U.K., Canada, and broader European derivatives trading.
Robinhood launched the public mainnet for Robinhood Chain on Wednesday, bringing tokenized stock trading fully live in more than 120 countries and introducing a decentralized lending product called Robinhood Earn. The launch is one of the company’s largest steps yet into onchain financial infrastructure, according to Robinhood.
Layer-2 Network Goes Live After Four Months of Testing
Robinhood announced the mainnet launch during an event in London. Robinhood Chain is a layer-2 blockchain built on Arbitrum, designed to support tokenized real-world assets and decentralized finance applications. The network had been running on testnet for about four months before Wednesday’s launch.
With the mainnet live, Robinhood’s tokenized stock products, known as Stock Tokens, are now fully available through Robinhood Wallet in more than 120 countries, though availability varies by jurisdiction. The company said the goal is to let users trade tokenized equities around the clock and use them within decentralized finance applications, including as collateral for lending protocols.
Robinhood Earn Offers Estimated 7% Yield on Stablecoin Lending
Robinhood also introduced Robinhood Earn, a decentralized lending product that lets users lend USDG, the company’s dollar-backed stablecoin, through a self-custody wallet. The product carries an estimated annual percentage yield of 7%, though the rate is not guaranteed and can fluctuate with market conditions.
Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s senior vice president of crypto, framed the launch around accessibility, saying,
“Decentralized finance unlocks possibilities beyond what traditional finance can offer, but historically, it has required technical expertise to navigate.”
Additional Expansion Across Europe, U.K. and Canada
Beyond Robinhood Chain, the company announced several other product and geographic expansions. Robinhood said it is broadening perpetual futures trading in Europe to include commodities, exchange-traded funds and foreign exchange markets alongside crypto.
The company also plans to launch crypto trading in the United Kingdom. It said its services are now available in Canada following its acquisition of WonderFi. Robinhood additionally unveiled Agentic Accounts for crypto, an AI-powered trading tool that will let eligible U.S. users connect AI models to Robinhood’s trading infrastructure while retaining control over capital allocation and trading parameters.
Expansion Follows Recent Workforce Reduction
The product push continues a pattern of Robinhood extending beyond stock and spot crypto trading into tokenized equities, derivatives and prediction markets, as other brokerages also build out blockchain-based trading infrastructure.
The launch comes about a month after Robinhood said it would cut 10% of its workforce, roughly 290 employees, as part of an effort to streamline its organizational structure. Robinhood shares rose 5% on the day of the announcement, though the stock remains about 30% below its October record.
