Robinhood Public Blockchain Goes Live in 120+ Countries — Not the U.S.

Robinhood has gone well beyond being a stock-trading app. The company launched the public mainnet of its own blockchain on Wednesday, a move that marks its most direct challenge yet to the boundary separating traditional brokerage from decentralized finance. The Robinhood public blockchain — built as an Ethereum layer-2 network on Arbitrum’s tech stack — went live at an event held at the Old Royal Naval College in London, and it brought a cascade of product announcements with it.

Key takeaways

• Robinhood Chain, a layer-2 blockchain built on Arbitrum, is now live on public mainnet.
• Stock Tokens are fully live via Robinhood Wallet in more than 120 countries, enabling 24/7 tokenized equity trading.
• Robinhood Earn offers decentralized lending on the USDG stablecoin with an estimated 7% annual yield.
• The company is expanding perpetual futures in Europe, entering Canada via the WonderFi acquisition, and planning a UK crypto launch.
• Robinhood cut approximately 10% of its workforce — around 290 employees — to streamline operations ahead of the expansion push.

Robinhood Chain Goes Live With Tokenized Stock Trading

Robinhood Chain is described by the company as permissionless, AI-native, and purpose-built for real-world assets. Day-one partners include Uniswap, which is deploying a dedicated automated market maker to serve as the primary public liquidity protocol, and Pleiades, deploying a proprietary AMM as the primary prop trading venue. The chain also integrates with Alchemy, BitGo, and Chainlink, alongside built-in DeFi primitives for lending and borrowing.

The mainnet launch was not just a technical milestone — it flipped the switch on Robinhood’s tokenized stock ambitions at a global scale.

Stock Tokens: 24/7 equity trading across 120+ countries

Stock Tokens are now fully live through Robinhood Wallet, available to eligible users in more than 120 countries, though access varies by jurisdiction. Spot trading is available through decentralized exchanges including Uniswap, Rialto, Lighter, Arcus, and 1inch. Importantly, Stock Tokens are not available in the U.S. or to U.S. persons, and face restrictions in several other markets including Canada, the UK, Switzerland, and the UAE.

Technically, these are tokenized debt securities issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited that provide economic exposure to underlying stocks — they do not grant legal or beneficial ownership rights in the underlying equities. Robinhood’s goal is to let users trade these instruments around the clock and deploy them across DeFi applications, including lending protocols and as trading collateral.

For context, Robinhood previously launched a first generation of tokenized U.S. equities — covering more than 200 stock and ETF tokens for EU and EEA users — at its Cannes event in June 2025. Those products, which traded inside the existing Robinhood app on Arbitrum One, will now be called “Classic Stock Tokens” to distinguish them from the new generation.

New DeFi Products and AI-Powered Trading

Beyond the blockchain itself, Robinhood introduced two products that extend its reach deeper into decentralized finance and artificial intelligence.

Robinhood Earn: lending the USDG stablecoin at an estimated 7% yield

Robinhood Earn allows users to lend USDG, the company’s dollar-backed stablecoin, through a self-custody wallet. The product offers an estimated annual percentage yield of 7%. It is framed as a decentralized lending product, meaning users retain custody of their assets rather than depositing into a centralized pool.

A 7% yield on a dollar-backed stablecoin is a meaningful number in the current rate environment, and it signals Robinhood’s intent to compete directly with DeFi protocols that have long offered similar returns — but without the mainstream distribution and app infrastructure that Robinhood brings.

Agentic Accounts: connecting AI to trading infrastructure

Robinhood also unveiled Agentic Accounts for crypto, an AI-powered trading tool for eligible U.S. users. The product lets users connect AI models directly to Robinhood’s trading infrastructure while retaining control over their own capital allocation and trading parameters. Details on specific safeguards and controls within the tool were not fully disclosed at launch.

International Expansion and Derivatives Growth

Robinhood is simultaneously widening its geographic and product footprint. Perpetual futures trading in Europe is being expanded to include commodities, ETFs, and foreign exchange markets alongside crypto — broadening what had previously been a crypto-only derivatives offering. The revamped Robinhood Wallet gives eligible users in selected jurisdictions access to perpetual futures via Lighter, an Ethereum-based decentralized exchange, though the product is unavailable to residents of the UK, U.S., Canada, Switzerland, UAE, and Singapore.

On the geographic front, Robinhood confirmed its services are now live in Canada following the completion of its acquisition of WonderFi, and the company plans to launch crypto trading in the UK. Combined with the European and global token rollout, this positions Robinhood across multiple major markets simultaneously.

The breadth of this expansion is what makes the London event strategically significant. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev described the announcements as the company’s “most ambitious global expansion and product vision to date.” The sequence — own blockchain, own stablecoin, tokenized equities, DeFi lending, AI trading, multi-continent distribution — reads less like a product roadmap and more like an attempt to rebuild financial infrastructure from scratch on top of blockchain rails.

Layoffs Alongside Expansion

The growth push came with an organizational cost. Robinhood previously announced it would cut approximately 10% of its workforce — around 290 employees — to streamline management structure. The timing is notable: scaling globally while simultaneously reducing headcount suggests the company is betting on technology and automation to do the work that more staff would have handled in a prior era.

On the day of the announcements, HOOD shares rose 5%, though the stock remains roughly 30% below its October record. The market’s measured reaction reflects both genuine excitement about the product vision and lingering skepticism about execution at this scale.

Bridging DeFi and Traditional Finance

“Decentralized finance unlocks possibilities beyond what traditional finance can offer, but historically, it has required technical expertise to navigate,” said Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s senior vice president of crypto. The implicit argument is that Robinhood’s distribution advantage — millions of retail users already on the platform — solves the accessibility problem that has kept mainstream audiences away from DeFi.

That framing is the analytical core of Robinhood’s bet. The company is not just adding crypto features to a brokerage app. It is building an on-chain financial stack — its own L2, its own stablecoin, tokenized real-world assets, lending, derivatives, and AI execution — and positioning itself as the consumer interface for all of it. Whether the regulatory environment in the UK, Canada, and the EU allows that vision to fully materialize will be the story to watch as these products move from launch day into actual adoption.

FAQ

What is Robinhood Chain and what blockchain technology does it use?

Robinhood Chain is a layer-2 public blockchain launched by Robinhood, built on Arbitrum’s technology stack. It is designed for tokenized real-world assets and decentralized finance applications, and is described as permissionless and AI-native.

Where are Robinhood’s Stock Tokens available to trade?

Stock Tokens are available through Robinhood Wallet in more than 120 countries, though availability varies by jurisdiction. They are not available in the U.S. or to U.S. persons, and face restrictions in Canada, the UK, Switzerland, the UAE, and sanctioned jurisdictions.

What is Robinhood Earn and what return does it offer?

Robinhood Earn is a decentralized lending product that allows users to lend USDG, Robinhood’s dollar-backed stablecoin, through a self-custody wallet. It offers an estimated annual percentage yield of 7%.

What international expansions has Robinhood announced?

Robinhood is expanding perpetual futures trading in Europe to include commodities, ETFs, and foreign exchange markets. The company is now offering services in Canada following its acquisition of WonderFi, and plans to launch crypto trading in the UK.

Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.