Robinhood's Ethereum L2 chain goes live, targeting tokenized stocks with 100ms blocks. The company holds $51B in crypto custody assets and operates in 120+ countries.
Alpha Score of 41 reflects weak overall profile with moderate momentum, poor value, moderate quality. Based on 3 of 4 signals – score is capped at 90 until remaining data ingests.
Robinhood launched its own Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain on July 1. The network, called Robinhood Chain, runs on Arbitrum infrastructure and targets tokenized real-world assets like equities and ETFs. Block times sit at 100 milliseconds, the company said, compared to Ethereum mainnet's roughly 12 seconds. The chain is open to developers in more than 120 countries where Robinhood operates.
The move follows Robinhood's acquisition of crypto exchange Bitstamp in June 2025 and builds on its $51 billion in crypto custody assets under management. A public testnet went live February 10, giving developers about five months to experiment before mainnet. The chain supports smart contract deployment and self-custody, meaning users can interact with the network without keeping assets on Robinhood's platform.
Tokenized US stocks and ETFs that were initially deployed on Arbitrum will migrate to Robinhood Chain. The 100ms block times matter for financial-grade applications where settlement speed is a real constraint. For context, Ethereum's mainnet processes a block every 12 seconds. Robinhood Chain's speed brings it closer to the latency of traditional exchange feeds.
The international angle is where the strategy gets concrete. Tokenizing US equities on-chain makes them accessible to users in countries where buying American stocks through standard brokerages is expensive, slow, or blocked. Robinhood already operates in more than 120 countries, and the chain gives those users a direct on-ramp to US-listed assets. The company earlier brought crypto trading to the UK via a London event, signaling a broader push into non-US markets.
Robinhood has also flagged EU perpetual futures and US staking services as roadmap items. Staking support for ETH and SOL would let users earn yield directly through the platform, adding a revenue stream beyond trading fees.
The network's success hinges on whether external developers build on it and whether users move assets onto the chain. Robinhood's $51 billion custody base gives it a built-in demand advantage that most new Layer 2s lack. If total value locked stays low after three months, the chain risks becoming a Robinhood internal tool rather than a public infrastructure play. The company said staking and EU perpetual futures are on the roadmap but did not provide a launch date.
Prepared with AlphaScala research tooling and grounded in primary market data: live prices, fundamentals, SEC filings, hedge-fund holdings, and insider activity. Each story is checked against AlphaScala publishing rules before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.