I've been watching Robinhood's crypto ambitions expand for two years now, from adding spot tokens, to prediction markets, to derivatives, to tokenized equities. But Tuesday's announcement in London crossed a line I didn't expect them to reach quickly. Robinhood now has its own public blockchain. And the products running on it are genuinely impressive.
Let me walk through what actually launched, because there's a lot here.
Robinhood Chain Is Live on Mainnet
Robinhood officially launched the public mainnet for Robinhood Chain, its own Layer 2 blockchain built on Arbitrum and designed specifically for tokenized real-world assets and decentralized finance applications. The testnet launched roughly four months ago. The mainnet going live today means this is no longer an experiment. It's a live financial network.
The launch was announced at an event in London, deliberate and symbolic given Robinhood's European expansion ambitions.
Tokenized Stocks Are Now Trading in Over 120 Countries
With the mainnet live, Robinhood's Stock Tokens, tokenized versions of real equities, are now fully operational through Robinhood Wallet in more than 120 countries, with availability varying by jurisdiction. The goal is round-the-clock trading of tokenized equities with the ability to use them across DeFi applications, including lending protocols and as collateral for trading positions.
That's a genuinely significant offering for international investors who can't access U.S. stock markets through traditional brokerages. Being able to buy a tokenized share of a U.S. company at 2am on a Sunday through a self-custody wallet is not something traditional finance offers. Robinhood just made it real.
Robinhood Earn: 7% Yield on USDG
The second major launch is Robinhood Earn, a decentralized lending product that lets users lend USDG, Robinhood's dollar-backed stablecoin, through a self-custody wallet and earn an estimated 7% annual yield. That rate is meaningfully above what most traditional savings accounts or money market funds offer right now, and it comes without surrendering custody of the underlying asset.
For anyone who has been watching MetaMask's 4% yield product, Robinhood just entered the same race with a higher headline number.
AI Trading Accounts and Further Expansion
Beyond the blockchain products, Robinhood also unveiled Agentic Accounts for crypto, an AI-powered trading tool that will allow eligible U.S. users to connect artificial intelligence models directly to Robinhood's trading infrastructure while retaining control over how capital is allocated and what trading parameters the AI operates within.
On the expansion side, perpetual futures trading in Europe is being extended to include commodities, ETFs, and foreign exchange markets alongside existing crypto perpetuals. Crypto trading is launching in the UK. And following Robinhood's acquisition of WonderFi, services are now live in Canada.
What This All Adds Up To
Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood's senior vice president of crypto, framed it simply: DeFi unlocks possibilities beyond what traditional finance can offer, but has historically required too much technical expertise. Robinhood is trying to close that gap.
I think that's the right description of what's actually happening here. Robinhood is not becoming a crypto company, it's becoming something that doesn't really have a name yet. A brokerage, a DeFi gateway, a blockchain operator, and an AI trading platform, all inside one app. The lines between traditional finance and crypto are genuinely blurring, and Robinhood is doing more than most to accelerate that convergence.
HOOD shares rose 5% on the day. Still 30% off October highs, but the direction after today's announcement is clear. This is a company that knows exactly where it's trying to go.