Robinhood Launches Ethereum Layer 2 with Arbitrum
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev announced that the company is building its own proprietary Ethereum Layer‑2 built on Arbitrum, which is designed specifically for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). The new “Robinhood Chain” will power the company’s ambitious push into tokenized stocks, ETFs, and even private company shares.
The main goal behind the launch is to enable 24/7 trading, self-custody, cross-chain interoperability, and seamless settlement without relying on third-party brokers.
Building on Arbitrum positions Robinhood within Ethereum’s ecosystem as the company aims to avoid liquidity fragmentation versus competing token standards on Solana.
Others, like Kraken and Bybit, offer stock tokenization as well, but Robinhood is distinguishing itself by developing its own Layer-2 blockchain.
Two days ago, Robinhood said it launched tokens that would allow over 200 US equities and ETFs to be tokenized and tradable commission-free for European customers via Arbitrum, and live 24 hours a day, five days a week. Among the offerings is the big trio, Nvidia (NVDA.O), Apple (AAPL.O), and Microsoft (MSFT.O).
Additionally, the plan is to also offer tokens connected to stocks of privately-held companies such as OpenAI and SpaceX.
Furthermore, the company is introducing crypto perpetual futures for the EU customers, with up to 3x leverage, and is backed by MiCA (Market in Crypto-Assets Regulation) licensing. For the US, there are plans to launch tokenized stocks and perpetuals, but at the moment, they depend on ongoing regulatory clarity.
Driven by all of these announcements and crypto-integrated innovations, Robinhood shares surged by approximately 12% to 13%, hitting record highs.
Built by Offchain Labs, Arbitrum is an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution that uses Optimistic Rollups, which means that transactions are processed off-chain (much cheaper and faster).
One of the reasons why Robinhood likely picked Arbitrum (instead of Solana, for instance) is that Arbitrum is 100% Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible. As a result, every smart contract that works on Ethereum works on Arbitrum without modification. In addition, it’s easier to integrate with Ethereum DeFi protocols and liquidity pools.
Then, Arbitrum inherits Ethereum’s security guarantees, which come in handy for companies like Robinhood that need regulatory assurances about asset custody and transaction finality.
There are other reasons, such as the fact that Robinhood’s crypto user base is largely already using Ethereum assets or that Arbitrum is the largest Layer 2 by total value locked (TVL).
Whatever the reason, with these recent announcements and today’s launch, Robinhood is leading a major transformation towards a financial platform that fully embraces crypto and blockchain technology.