Robinhood has launched the public testnet for Robinhood Chain, a financial-grade Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain built on Arbitrum. Johann Kerbrat, senior vice president and general manager of Robinhood Crypto, announced the testnet at Consensus Hong Kong on Wednesday, marking the first phase of public development of a blockchain that was first mentioned at the company’s keynote conference in Cannes last year.
In an interview with BeInCrypto in Hong Kong ahead of the announcement, Kerbrat explained the company’s vision for blockchain, which includes tokenized real-world assets, 24/7 trading, and a developer hackathon program with $1 million prizes.
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Why build your own blockchain
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The testnet opens access to network entry points, developer documentation, and is fully compatible with standard Ethereum development tools. Ecosystem partners such as Alchemy and LayerZero are already building on top of the blockchain.
The launch comes at a key moment. Robinhood reported revenue of $1.28 billion in the fourth quarter on Tuesday, below analyst expectations of $1.35 billion. Crypto transaction revenue fell to $221 million from $268 million in the previous quarter, as the price of Bitcoin fell 23% during that period. The company’s shares have fallen from their all-time high of $154 in October due to the overall bearish trend in the crypto market.
Robinhood launched for the first time tokenized US stocks for EU clients in July 2025 through a partnership with Arbitrum, offering commission-free tokens linked to more than 200 US stocks and ETFs. The product now covers over 1,000 stock tokens in the EU and EEA. But the company always intended to migrate to its own blockchain.
“From the beginning it was a two-step process. Arbitrum’s technology allows you to launch first on Arbitrum One and then migrate to your own proprietary blockchain,” Kerbrat told BeInCrypto.
The main motivation is customization. General-purpose Layer 2 networks handle regulation at the smart contract level, but Robinhood Chain integrates regulatory requirements directly into the blockchain itself. This difference is important for tokenized securities, where the creation and burning of equity tokens must comply with different rules depending on the jurisdiction.
The blockchain itself is permissionless — anyone can build on it — but the products Robinhood develops are intended specifically for regulated financial services.
From stock tokens to real-world assets
Tokenized public stocks were the starting point, but Robinhood’s ambitions go far beyond listed stocks. Kerbrat commented that the company’s tokenization engine is designed to support private equity, real estate, art and other real-world assets in the future.
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A key part of the value proposition is extending trading hours. Currently, Robinhood stock tokens trade 24 hours a day, five days a week. The migration to Robinhood Chain is expected to enable 24/7 trading, removing the restrictions of traditional market hours.
Instant settlement and self-custody are also in the plan, along with integration with liquidity pools and lending protocols. Together, these features represent a significant improvement over the current tokenized stock product, which relies on Arbitrum One infrastructure.
Developer ecosystem and focus on DeFi
In the short term, Robinhood is focused on attracting developers to build decentralized exchanges, perpetual trading platforms, and lending protocols on the blockchain. These are natural steps for your existing broker and crypto products.
To boost the ecosystem, the company plans a series of hackathons in various areas of the world, with a total prize of 1 million dollars. Kerbrat said the focus will be exclusively on financial applications.
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Expansion in Asia-Pacific
The launch of the testnet on Consensus Hong Kong coincides with Robinhood’s push into the Asia-Pacific region. Robinhood completed its $200 million purchase of Bitstamp in June 2025, gaining access to the exchange’s more than 50 active licenses and registrations worldwide, in addition to its institutional crypto-as-a-service business.
Kerbrat said the event was an opportunity to meet Bitstamp clients based in Singapore in person. Thanks to the acquisition, Robinhood now has licenses in Singapore and Indonesia. It also bought two smaller companies in Indonesia to have a local presence.
Indonesia, with approximately 13 million crypto users, is a priority market. Kerbrat said early conversations with Indonesian regulators have been positive, focusing on AML compliance and risk disclosures rather than resisting the company’s entry.
Kerbrat said Robinhood’s regulatory history — which includes FINRA, DFS in New York, MiCA in the EU and MAS in Singapore — gives the company confidence to operate in different jurisdictions.
Diversify the revenue model
The fact that fourth-quarter earnings fell short of expectations highlights an ongoing concern: Robinhood’s heavy reliance on transaction-based revenue, especially from crypto trading. The company is working to diversify on several fronts.
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The staking, launched in the United States in 2025, has reached around $1 billion in locked assets. The Robinhood Chain is intended to generate new forms of infrastructure-based income over time.
As for trading, Robinhood has invested in advanced tools to attract high-volume, high-frequency traders — this segment provides more stable income even in bear markets, according to Kerbrat. The company also expanded its commission levels from three to sevenwith rates from 0.03% for high volume traders.
The institutional channel is also growing. Bitstamp’s crypto-as-a-service offering allows banks, hedge funds, and family offices to provide access to cryptocurrencies to their clients. Kerbrat noted that institutions often enter the market during downtrends, providing a countercyclical cushion.
Meanwhile, prediction markets have come into their own. CEO Vlad Tenev said at a company event in December that prediction markets are the “fastest-growing product line by revenue in Robinhood’s history,” with 11 billion contracts traded by more than one million customers.
What’s next?
The public testnet is the first phase of a multi-step launch. Robinhood plans to migrate its current stock token products to the blockchain before eventually moving to the mainnet. No specific date has been announced for the mainnet launch.
“Our vision has not changed: we are building the financial super app,” Tenev said in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report.
date: 2026-02-11 07:52:00
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