Robinhood Goes Full Blockchain With Its Own Ethereum L2
Robinhood is no longer just trading crypto. It is building its own blockchain.
The company announced at Consensus Hong Kong on February 11 that Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum layer-2 network built on Arbitrum technology, has entered public testnet. After six months of private testing, the network is now open to developers who want to build decentralized applications on a chain specifically designed for tokenized financial products.
"We're looking to build the safest on-ramp to not just the crypto economy, but the entire financial system," said Johann Kerbrat, SVP and General Manager of Crypto at Robinhood. The goal is not simply another L2 competing on speed. Robinhood Chain is purpose-built for regulated financial instruments, with compliance embedded directly at the chain layer.
The testnet supports standard Ethereum development tools, and documentation is already live at docs.chain.robinhood.com. Mainnet is planned for later in 2026.
Nearly 2,000 Tokenized Stocks Already Onchain
This is not a cold start. Robinhood has already tokenized nearly 2,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs on Arbitrum for European customers, representing approximately $15 million in total minted value. These tokens support dividend payments and extended trading hours, giving European users access to U.S. equities outside traditional market windows.
The plan is to migrate these existing tokenized products onto Robinhood Chain before the mainnet transition. Once live, the chain will support 24/7 trading, instant settlement, and self-custody through Robinhood Wallet. That last point matters: users will be able to hold their tokenized stocks in a non-custodial wallet, blurring the line between traditional brokerage and DeFi.
Kerbrat framed the chain's specialization clearly: "We wanted security from Ethereum, liquidity from EVM chains, and the ecosystem, while customizing for tokenized assets." In his view, chains will increasingly specialize, and Robinhood's niche is regulated tokenized equity.
The Tech Stack: Arbitrum Orbit With Ethereum DA
Robinhood Chain uses Arbitrum Orbit, the framework that lets teams deploy custom L2 and L3 chains anchored to Ethereum. ETH serves as the gas token, and Ethereum handles data availability, meaning the chain inherits Ethereum's security guarantees while processing transactions in batches for lower costs and higher throughput.
The infrastructure partner list reads like a DeFi all-star roster. Alchemy provides node infrastructure. Chainlink supplies oracle feeds. LayerZero handles cross-chain messaging. Allium provides blockchain data indexing, and TRM covers compliance and risk monitoring.
The emphasis on compliance is notable. Robinhood plans jurisdiction-specific rules embedded at the protocol level, a design that could make it easier for regulated entities to deploy products without wrapping their own compliance layer on top. This is fundamentally different from general-purpose L2s that leave compliance entirely to application developers.
A $1 Million Developer Ecosystem Push
To seed the developer ecosystem, Robinhood is committing $1 million to hackathons across multiple geographies as part of Arbitrum's 2026 Open House program. The company wants builders to create perpetual futures exchanges, lending markets, and other DeFi primitives on top of Robinhood Chain.
This is a meaningful signal. Robinhood is not just building internal tools on its own chain. It is opening the network to third-party developers, positioning Robinhood Chain as infrastructure for an ecosystem of financial applications. If successful, this could create a flywheel: more developers build financial products, which attract more users, which generate more liquidity, which attract more developers.
The testnet already supports the tooling developers expect from an EVM-compatible chain: Hardhat, Foundry, and other standard frameworks work out of the box. The barrier to entry is low for any Solidity developer.
What This Means for Crypto Card Users and Everyday Spending
The intersection with crypto cards is not immediately obvious, but it is significant. If Robinhood Chain succeeds in tokenizing equities with instant settlement and self-custody, it creates a new class of collateral for crypto-native financial products.
Imagine holding tokenized Apple or Tesla shares in a self-custodial wallet and using them as collateral for a crypto-backed credit line or spending directly from a portfolio that includes both crypto and stocks. Several card issuers already let users spend from crypto balances. Adding tokenized stocks to that equation would be a natural evolution.
OKX, Binance, and Bybit all offer card programs tied to exchange balances. If tokenized equities become liquid onchain assets, the next generation of crypto cards could let users tap their stock portfolio at the point of sale without selling through a traditional brokerage first.
Robinhood Wallet's self-custody model also aligns with the broader trend toward non-custodial spending options. Users who want to hold their own keys while still accessing traditional financial products could find Robinhood Chain compelling, even if they never use the Robinhood app itself.
The Competitive Landscape: Late but Differentiated
Robinhood is not the first to tokenize equities onchain. Competitors like xStocks and Ondo Global Markets have significantly larger tokenized asset bases. But Robinhood brings something competitors lack: a regulated brokerage with 24 million funded accounts and brand recognition among retail investors who have never touched DeFi.
The strategic bet is that compliance-first infrastructure will attract institutional capital that general-purpose L2s cannot. Binance's recent partnership with Franklin Templeton for tokenized money market fund collateral shows institutional appetite for this exact type of product. Robinhood Chain could capture a similar audience, especially given its existing relationships with traditional finance.
There is also no native token planned, which removes the speculative noise that often distracts from L2 utility. ETH-as-gas keeps the chain aligned with Ethereum's broader ecosystem rather than creating a new token economy that needs bootstrapping.
FAQ
When will Robinhood Chain mainnet launch? Robinhood has stated mainnet is planned for later in 2026. The public testnet launched February 11, 2026, following six months of private testing. No specific mainnet date has been confirmed.
Will Robinhood Chain have its own token? No. Robinhood has confirmed there are no current plans for a native token. ETH serves as the gas token on the network.
Can I trade tokenized stocks on Robinhood Chain right now? Not yet. The testnet is currently open to developers. Tokenized stock trading will become available as the chain progresses toward mainnet, with test-only stock tokens planned for the testnet phase.
What can developers build on Robinhood Chain? The chain supports perpetual futures exchanges, lending markets, tokenized asset platforms, and other DeFi applications. Standard Ethereum development tools are compatible.
Overview
Robinhood has launched the public testnet for Robinhood Chain, an Arbitrum-based Ethereum L2 designed specifically for tokenized financial products. With nearly 2,000 stocks already tokenized, a $1 million developer hackathon fund, and infrastructure partners including Alchemy, Chainlink, LayerZero, Allium, and TRM, the chain aims to bring 24/7 trading, instant settlement, and self-custody to regulated financial assets. The mainnet is expected later in 2026. While competitors hold larger tokenized asset bases, Robinhood's 24 million funded accounts and compliance-first design give it a unique angle in the tokenized equity race. For crypto card users, the potential to spend from tokenized stock portfolios through self-custodial wallets represents a meaningful step toward unified crypto and traditional finance spending.
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