Robinhood just shipped its own blockchain. The company launched the public mainnet of Robinhood Chain on July 1, an Arbitrum-based Ethereum Layer 2 network unveiled during a keynote event in London by CEO Vlad Tenev and SVP Johann Kerbrat.
The chain isn’t just another L2 looking for a reason to exist. It’s designed to let users trade tokenized US equities and ETFs around the clock, access DeFi lending products, and interact with decentralized exchanges, all through Robinhood Wallet. The service is available to users in over 120 countries, though notably not to US persons.
What Robinhood Chain actually does
The core product here is Stock Tokens, which are tokenized versions of US equities and ETFs. In English: Robinhood is putting traditional stocks on a blockchain so they can be traded 24/7 and used as collateral in DeFi applications. That’s a meaningful difference from just listing crypto assets on a centralized exchange.
Alongside the chain launch, Robinhood introduced Robinhood Earn, a lending product offering an estimated 7% annual percentage yield on USDG stablecoins. The product is backed by Lloyd’s insurance, which adds a layer of institutional credibility that most DeFi lending protocols can’t match.
