Robinhood unveils AI-native Ethereum layer-2, Stock Tokens

Robinhood launched the public mainnet of Robinhood Chain on Wednesday. The network is an Arbitrum-powered, Ethereum layer-2 that the company describes as ‘AI-native.’ It supports tokenized Stock Tokens and programmatic trading by software agents.

The chain opens with integrations from BitGo for custody and Chainlink for price oracles. Uniswap is providing automated market making for public liquidity, while Pleiades will offer prop-trading infrastructure. Robinhood said those integrations will link its traditional brokerage services with decentralized finance features.

Robinhood introduced Stock Tokens as on-chain representations of shares in major companies such as Nvidia and Apple. The tokens are available to users in eligible jurisdictions outside the United States. Robinhood said holders can deposit Stock Tokens into lending pools and use them as collateral in decentralized finance applications.

The company also expanded features in its Robinhood Wallet. In-wallet perpetuals trading is available through a partnership with decentralized perpetuals exchange Lighter. Eligible U.S. users can access Robinhood Earn to lend the dollar-backed stablecoin USDG at about a 7% annual percentage yield.

Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s senior vice president and general manager of crypto and international, described the chain as a bridge between traditional finance and DeFi and added, ‘We’re bringing the best of traditional finance and DeFi together, and in doing so, expanding financial ownership to every corner of the globe.’

Robinhood said the launch coincides with a geographic expansion. The company will accept users from Canada immediately, plans to add Singapore soon and expects to offer crypto services in the U.K. in the near future. Robinhood reported it serves nearly 28 million customers.

The rollout follows recent cost reductions. Robinhood disclosed on Tuesday that it is cutting about 10% of its workforce to flatten its organizational structure. CEO Vlad Tenev wrote in an internal message that the company must not ‘default to operating as a heavily-layered organization.’

Financial figures cited by the company show crypto revenue fell 34% quarter-over-quarter to $134 million from $221 million. On the day the mainnet went live, Robinhood’s shares rose more than 8%, closing at $108.65, up nearly 20% over the past month and about 29% below the 52-week high of $153.86.

Robinhood said the public mainnet will be subject to jurisdictional rules governing tokenized securities and that geographic availability will expand in phases.