Robinhood opened big late at night, kicking out the entire imagination of the exchange for the summer.

Original | Odaily Daily Report (@OdailyChina)

Author｜CryptoLeo（@LeoAndCrypto）

At midnight Beijing time today, Robinhood released "multiple heavyweight bombs," announcing the launch of stock tokenization, RWA L2, perpetual contract functions, and staking services, etc..

The weak interaction and lack of smooth liquidity between traditional funds and cryptocurrencies have always been a "mental knot" for crypto practitioners. At the beginning of 2024, the situation began to improve as the approval of the BTC spot ETF facilitated traditional funds' exposure to cryptocurrencies. Subsequently, other relatively mainstream crypto assets also closely followed in the approval of ETFs. By this year, the "GENIUS Act" ignited a "compliance bull" from the perspective of stablecoins, and traditional finance made a significant re-entry. However, in my view, this is still not enough; the most crucial link in the connection—tokenization of stocks—has not yet fully unleashed its potential.

Currently, among the institutions laying out stock tokenization, three have a high level of compliance and are relatively well-known. First is Kraken, which has already launched its stock tokenization platform xStocks last month, now supporting 60 U.S. stocks for round-the-clock trading; second is Coinbase, which is in the process of seeking SEC approval to issue blockchain-based stocks in the U.S. If approved, it will also allow Coinbase to offer traditional stock trading on-chain; and third is today's main character, Robinhood, which announced its L2 (based on Arbitrum Orbit) and stock tokenization while also launching several new products, including perpetual futures for EU customers and staking for U.S. users. Additionally, Robinhood will also give away OpenAI and SpaceX stock tokens to EU users.

Affected by this news, Robinhood stock HOOD rose over 12 points to $93.15 (at the time of writing).

Three Major Moves - Robinhood's Announcement is Finalized

In May of this year, Robinhood submitted a proposal to the SEC aimed at tokenizing the U.S. securities market. The proposal indicates that the scope of tokenization may include traditional assets such as bonds and stocks.

Early yesterday morning, Robinhood co-founder Vlad Tenev posted on X, stating that Robinhood will release an important announcement related to its crypto business in one day. This release will reveal "exciting" news from Robinhood Crypto. In the hours leading up to the official launch of stock tokenization, there were also rumors in the market that "Robinhood EU may launch tokenized stock trading services."

Below, Odaily will specifically introduce the three major announcements made by Robinhood today:

Stock Tokenization and its L2

Its official website shows that currently Robinhood users can purchase over 200 types of US stock tokens on its app, including tokenized stocks like NVIDIA, Microsoft, Apple, and others. Specifically:

• Stock tokens are displayed and traded in USD, and when users place an order, Robinhood will automatically convert them to EUR based on the current exchange rate, and charge a small foreign exchange fee of 0.1%. Additionally, there are no hidden fees;
• Very low trading volume threshold: You can start trading with as little as 1 euro;
• Trading hours are nearly 24/7: From Monday to Friday, tokenized stocks can be bought and sold 24 hours a day.

Robinhood has also launched related activities. As of July 7, eligible EU users can receive SpaceX and OpenAI stock tokens worth €5 for free through Robinhood EU. Robinhood is rewarding a total of $500,000 in SpaceX tokens and $1,000,000 in OpenAI stock tokens for this activity.

It should be noted that after stock tokenization, the stock code is not the same as the token name (for example, Facebook's stock code changed from FB to META). The stock tokens will also change according to the actions of their companies, such as when a company undergoes a stock split (1 share becomes 2 shares), the tokens on Robinhood will also change accordingly (1 token becomes 2 tokens), and vice versa.

During his speech at the Cannes (recently held ETHCC), CEO Vladimir Tenev explained the three stages of stock tokenization:

Phase 1: Tokenize stocks into receipt tokens, with transactions still settled in the existing traditional financial markets;

Phase Two: Integrate Bitstamp to enhance liquidity and enable round-the-clock trading;

Phase Three: Integrate blockchain for composability advantages.

Stock tokenization will initially be issued on Arbitrum. In the future, it will be traded on the Robinhood L2 chain based on Arbitrum Orbit, the Robinhood Chain is currently under development and will be optimized for stock tokenization, supporting round-the-clock trading, seamless bridging, and self-custody.

European Users Perpetual Futures

In addition to tokenized stocks, Robinhood also announced the launch of perpetual futures for European users today, set to roll out later this summer. Users can open long/short contracts with a maximum leverage of 3x, with plans to expand more options for premium customers in the future. Furthermore, to help users reduce the complexity of trading perpetual contracts, Robinhood has built an intuitive interface that makes it easy for users to set position sizes and manage margins, with orders routed through the Bitstamp perpetual contract exchange.

cryptocurrency staking and a series of preferential packages

• A cryptocurrency staking service is launched for eligible U.S. users, starting with ETH and SOL. In addition, Robinhood has set no limits on the amount users can stake and has introduced a deposit promotion, where **U.S. and European users can deposit cryptocurrencies into Robinhood and earn a 1% deposit reward within a limited time (after July 7) — if total deposits reach the target of $500 million, there is a chance to double to 2%. Users who deposit before July 7 will directly receive a 2% reward; **
• Cryptocurrency Credit Card Rewards: The Robinhood Gold Card offers cashback on all categories of spending for U.S. customers. Until this fall, customers can automatically use these rewards to purchase cryptocurrency;
• Cortex for Crypto (AI Investment Platform): Set to launch later this year, Robinhood Gold members can directly view insights, trends, and event-driven market analysis on each token's detail page. This product is designed to help customers quickly understand price and market changes in real-time.
• Smart Exchange Routing: Evaluates multiple partner exchanges and routes user orders to obtain the best prices. The larger the user's trading volume over the past 30 days, the lower the fees. API support will be launched soon.
• Tax Lots: U.S. customers can now view and sell specific tax lots of cryptocurrency transactions, allowing users to strategically choose which lots to sell**;**
• Advanced Charts: The advanced charts of the Robinhood Legend app will be launched on mobile and will expand to cryptocurrency in August.

In a time when public companies announce new actions regarding crypto reserves every week, the series of services and suites launched by Robinhood are in a better position than ever. Its CEO Vladimir Tenev stated in his speech: "We have the opportunity to prove to the world that what we have always believed, cryptocurrency is far more than just a speculative asset. It has the potential to become a cornerstone of the global financial community."

Over the past few years, Robinhood has experienced many ups and downs in the industry, transforming from a retail brokerage to a crypto star. Looking back now, everything mentioned above has a traceable path.

In the past 7 years, Robinhood's efforts in cryptocurrency

On the timeline, counting Robinhood's actions in cryptocurrency, it all started in 2018. In February of that year, Robinhood took its "first step" into crypto by announcing that it would allow users to trade BTC and ETH on its platform, initially launching in certain U.S. states and gradually expanding to more cryptocurrencies and regions. Since then, Robinhood has temporarily suspended crypto trading multiple times due to significant price fluctuations and other issues, and it has also faced scrutiny and fines from the SEC. But fortunately, Robinhood has never stopped exploring its crypto business.

Timeline of crypto-related companies acquired by Robinhood

Since 2021, Robinhood has started acquiring cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency-related companies, including:

• In 2021, Robinhood acquired the cross-exchange trading platform Cove Markets, marking Robinhood's first crypto acquisition aimed at strengthening its core crypto trading products. Since Cove Markets allows customers to manage accounts across multiple exchange platforms and aggregate large amounts of data, this acquisition aims to facilitate easier management of crypto accounts for Robinhood customers.
• In 2022, Robinhood announced its acquisition of the UK crypto platform Ziglu, which allows retail investors to purchase cryptocurrencies and has obtained an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). "Ziglu's European compliance and a large number of European users" is also an effort by Robinhood to expand its business* (however, due to a severe downturn in the crypto market at the end of the year, Robinhood lowered its acquisition offer for Ziglu, and the acquisition was ultimately not completed);*
• In May this year, Robinhood announced the acquisition of the Canadian crypto platform WonderFi, which has two regulated trading platforms, Bitbuy and Coinsquare. Analysts claim that the acquisition is a "key first step for Robinhood to enter the Canadian market", and it is expected that the deal could bring Robinhood "approximately $250 million in annual revenue", or "close to 10% growth potential";
• In June of this year, Robinhood agreed to acquire Bitstamp for $200 million, with the transaction expected to be completed in the first half of 2025. In addition to adding 4 to 5 million new cryptocurrency customers to Robinhood, another important reason for the acquisition is to allow it to take over the more than 50 licenses that Bitstamp has in Europe and globally, which also lays the groundwork for its announcement today that it will launch crypto perpetual contracts in Europe;
• Today, Robinhood acquired the AI investment advisory platform Pluto, which is known for its AI-driven personalized investment advice and real-time analysis, providing its users with tailored investment strategies and insights. The acquisition of Pluto also serves as a prelude to its announcement of the launch of the AI assistant Robinhood Cortex, which will not only develop strategies for stocks and ETFs but also cover news related to the crypto market and updates on token prices. Cortex will provide all relevant developments that have occurred recently on the detailed information page of the token, allowing for a better understanding of the reasons behind token fluctuations.

The Development History of Robinhood's Crypto Products

While Robinhood is focusing on acquisitions, it is also working to improve its product offerings:

As mentioned earlier, when it initially promoted its cryptocurrency business, it ceased instant deposits for cryptocurrency trading due to significant fluctuations in BTC and DOGE, which was the first hurdle in its transition to accepting cryptocurrency trading as a brokerage. Since then, Robinhood has undergone multiple investigations and fines from regulatory authorities.

Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev stated during a roadshow in 2021 that the company would fully commit to cryptocurrency, focusing on expanding its crypto products, and users could expect new crypto features "at some point." This also marked the beginning of Robinhood's push for its crypto products.

If Tenev keeps his word, at the peak of DOGE's popularity, Robinhood has taken the opportunity to test and launch the DOGE Transfer feature, allowing DOGE to be transferred to external wallets. At the same time, they also introduced Crypto Gift Cards.

After the rise of DeFi, NFTs, and others, Robinhood announced the launch of a new Web3 wallet application Robinhood Wallet (currently supports dApps on Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base networks), allowing users to access NFT markets, DeFi, DEX, and swap token functions, similar to other non-custodial wallets like MetaMask, but it is an application independent of existing stock and crypto platforms. After its launch, Robinhood Wallet is also expanding its supported chains, tokens, and IOS version. * (For a while last year, the tokens transferred out by Robinhood could serve as reference targets for short-term price increases.) *

At the end of 2024, Robinhood released its crypto data, **as of November 2024, the value of the custodial crypto assets reached $38 billion, **as of November 2024, Robinhood's nominal cryptocurrency trading volume reached $119 billion (over the past year). In 2024, its product updates included:

• Achieved comprehensive coverage of all 50 states and territories in the United States, and supported new cryptocurrencies including SOL, PEPE, ADA, XRP, and WIF, bringing the total number of cryptocurrencies available to U.S. users to 20.
• Launched the Robinhood cryptocurrency trading API, providing tools for viewing cryptocurrency market data, managing portfolios, and placing orders programmatically. iOS and Android systems also offer advanced order types including stop-loss and limit orders.
• At the end of the year, it announced the launch of ETH and SOL staking for European customers. Since its launch in the second quarter, more than two-thirds of SOL holdings in the region have been staked.
• The Robinhood Wallet, in addition to its existing support for Ethereum and Polygon, has added Swap functionality for Solana, Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism. It has also launched cross-chain and zero Gas exchanges on Ethereum and some of its L2s (as mentioned earlier).

At this point, Robinhood's full set of cryptocurrency facilities has gradually improved, covering spot, contracts, staking, AI, and its own stock tokenization public chain. Back then, Robinhood certainly did not expect that the "first step" in opening up cryptocurrency trading would have such a significant impact, and its products are now close to becoming a "unicorn" in the cryptocurrency industry.

"Seven years ago in spring, Robinhood picked up a real gun and pulled the trigger, but it had no effect at the time. Until today, Robinhood turned around and found that the bullet hit the coin stock market."

Impact of Forces: The Spring of the Stock Market, the End of the Shanzhai?

Currently, Robinhood excels in certain aspects of cryptocurrency compared to other crypto products, such as unlimited ETH staking. In line with its consistently retail-friendly approach, it may also be more lenient in trading restrictions for some coins than others. However, the variety of tokens it currently supports is limited, and altcoins that have not yet been listed may need to consider how to get onto Robinhood. For the stock market, Robinhood's launch of SpaceX and OpenAI stock tokens in Europe marks the democratization of private equity, allowing retail investors access to stocks that were previously inaccessible.

Although the stock token is not a new idea, many cryptocurrency trading platforms have such products, and there are also quite a few crypto platforms that specialize in this direction, but Robinhood's entry into this market is of a different significance.

The significance of crypto platforms offering stock products lies in providing native users in the crypto space with convenient opportunities to trade other stock assets. For compliant brokerage platforms, 'chain' and 'coin' represent a solution for them to achieve more efficient settlement, better liquidity, lower trading friction, and connect trading scenarios and users across regions and time zones. In simple terms, it allows all ordinary investors to enter the market smoothly. In the future, for the same stock, will you look at Nasdaq or Robinhood in the pre-market?

The practitioners in the narrow sense of the "crypto circle" actually have little to be happy about. The liquidity of altcoins will be further squeezed, and the "incremental flow" increasingly has no necessity to enter the crypto market. In the future, apart from "coins that have passed the ETF" and "coins that can connect with traditional finance and provide underlying infrastructure," other altcoins may find it difficult to escape the fate of extinction.

Although Robinhood is a relatively young "alternative" brokerage and there is a gap in scale compared to large traditional brokerages, and it has been criticized for multiple operational issues, its recent "move" will certainly provoke further reflection and planning from the already eager traditional giants.

Many product forms are not new; who does them is the key to survival.