Robinhood Brings Wall Street On-Chain with Tokenized Stocks in Europe
Robinhood’s shares soared to an all-time high on Monday as the trading platform announced its European customers can now trade U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs as tokenized assets on Arbitrum, an Ethereum layer-2 network—marking a major leap in its blockchain strategy.
The company’s stock jumped 11.25% to $92.37, reflecting a 148% rally year-to-date from $39 in January. Investors responded to the firm’s announcement that its European app is transforming into a blockchain-powered investment platform offering tokenized stocks, crypto trading, and perpetual futures.
Robinhood’s move is designed to position its European app as an “all-in-one investment app powered by crypto,” with plans to eventually shift these services to its own custom Ethereum-compatible layer-2 blockchain. This initiative follows years of internal development to enable trading of real-world assets on-chain.
“For us, having an EVM-compatible chain was very important,” said Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood Crypto’s SVP and GM. “At the end of the day, the idea of putting stock on-chain was to remove this walled garden.”
European users will now gain direct exposure to U.S.-listed equities and ETFs on-chain via Arbitrum, while crypto perpetual futures—derivatives offering up to 3x leverage—will be available for advanced traders. Orders for these futures will be routed through Bitstamp, which Robinhood acquired in a $200 million cash deal in June.
Robinhood is also rolling out crypto staking for Ethereum and Solana in eligible U.S. regions. This expansion follows updated SEC guidance stating staking no longer involves securities laws, relaxing previous regulatory scrutiny.
“We’re trying to cut out middlemen who charge Europeans exorbitant costs when accessing U.S.-listed assets,” said Robinhood Crypto Head of Product Seong Seog Lee, noting the new structure offers zero-commission trading with only a 0.1% foreign exchange fee. “Eventually, users will be able to self-custody tokenized stocks and ETFs through Robinhood’s digital wallet.”
Robinhood’s CEO Vlad Tenev demonstrated the new capability during a keynote event in France on Monday, showing Arbitrum being used to trade a digital representation of OpenAI stock. The transaction, he confirmed on X (formerly Twitter), “did indeed succeed.”
Beyond tokenized stocks, Robinhood teased a series of crypto-native features coming soon: a credit card with crypto cashback, a 1% boost on crypto deposits for a limited time, and “tax lots” for digital assets to help customers optimize capital gains.
Robinhood’s broader European strategy is supported by its recently acquired Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) license, expanding its service reach to over 31 countries. This license places Robinhood in direct competition with other major exchanges rolling out similar products, such as Coinbase’s Base layer-2 network and Kraken’s tokenized stock trading via xStocks on Solana.
“Robinhood’s European app is now completely powered by blockchain tech,” the company said in its press release.
Crypto has become a growing pillar of Robinhood’s business. In the second quarter, the company reported $252 million in crypto revenue—double the figure from a year earlier.
Analysts see big upside in the company’s strategy. Ed Engel of Compass Point wrote on Friday that tokenized stock trading could drive “higher margin trading fees” in Robinhood’s digital wallet. He raised his price target for Robinhood stock to $96 from $64 while reiterating a “Buy” rating.
Robinhood’s latest expansion underscores its ambition to stay ahead of competitors in the race to merge traditional finance and blockchain technology, offering retail investors around the world a seamless way to access tokenized equities, crypto assets, and advanced trading tools—all on-chain.
