Woofun AI reports that on July 1, Robinhood held a press conference to announce the official mainnet launch of Robinhood Chain, a Layer 2 public network built on Arbitrum. this infrastructure is designed to tokenize real-world assets and support DeFi applications, allowing users to trade tokenized stocks on decentralized exchanges including Uniswap, Rialto, Lighter, and 1inch. The platform enables these assets to function within DeFi scenarios, serving as collateral for loans or being deposited into liquidity pools to generate returns. With the mainnet live, Robinhood Stock Tokens are now fully accessible via the Robinhood Wallet in over 120 countries, though specific availability remains subject to local jurisdictional regulations.

Simultaneously, the company introduced Robinhood Earn, a product enabling users to lend USDG stablecoins through self-custody wallets with an expected annual yield of approximately 7%. The underlying lending infrastructure relies on Morpho, supported by a suite of DeFi protocols including Steakhouse, Ethena, Spark, and Maple, alongside an official insurance mechanism to mitigate risk exposure. Beyond lending, Robinhood announced the expansion of its European perpetual futures products to cover commodities, ETFs, and foreign exchange markets, with plans to launch crypto trading in the UK. Following the acquisition of WonderFi, the company's services have also extended into the Canadian market, broadening its global financial footprint.

In the domestic US market, Robinhood debuted Agentic Accounts for crypto users, a feature allowing qualified individuals to connect AI models directly to the firm's trading infrastructure while retaining full control over fund allocation and trading parameters. The immediate market reaction to these announcements was positive; on the day of the press conference, Robinhood's stock price surged by 8.35% and continued to climb during after-hours trading. This price movement reflects investor confidence in the company's pivot toward integrating advanced automation tools with traditional asset classes.

This strategic move represents a fundamental shift from Robinhood's historical identity as a zero-commission brokerage toward becoming an 'everything exchange.' The company currently manages nearly 28 million funded accounts where users have established habits around stock, options, and crypto trading. By integrating stocks, cryptocurrencies, tokenized assets, stablecoin yields, perpetual futures, and AI trading tools into a single financial account system, Robinhood seeks to transcend its role as a mere interface provider. The significance of Robinhood Chain lies in the company's refusal to remain a tenant on another entity's chain, aiming instead to own the settlement layer where assets and transactions occur.

Historically, financial firms entering the crypto space connected to existing public chains, managing users and interfaces while relying on external networks for settlement, gas, liquidity, and DeFi applications. While this model facilitated rapid startup, it created a long-term vulnerability where user assets resided on external territory despite being accessed through proprietary apps. For Robinhood, this issue is critical given its massive user base; directing users to external DeFi would relegate the firm to a channel provider status. By operating tokenized stocks, USDG lending, AI agent trading, and RWA products on its own chain, the firm gains deeper control over trading, settlement, collateral, yields, and asset flows, marking a transition from interface provider to financial infrastructure owner.

Following the launch, major protocols including Uniswap, 1inch, Lighter, Morpho, Chainlink, BitGo, Ethena, and EtherFi have integrated with Robinhood Chain, covering trading, liquidity, lending, oracle, custody, and cross-chain functionalities.

Notably, the new DEX Arcus launched by dYdX chose to deploy on Robinhood Chain rather than dYdX's own network, a decision that sparked controversy within the dYdX community. This choice highlights that institutional chains are now competing not only for end users but also for protocols, liquidity, and product attention. Similar moves by Circle launching Arc to control USDC settlement and Coinbase launching Base to retain ecosystem activity underscore a broader trend where brokerages and retail platforms compete for the on-chain settlement layer of tokenized assets.

Woofun AI data shows that while the company expands its infrastructure, it is simultaneously executing aggressive cost-cutting measures. Just last month, Robinhood announced a 10% layoff affecting approximately 290 employees, expecting to incur roughly $20 million in severance and benefits restructuring costs, plus about $8 million in stock compensation expenses. CEO Vlad Tenev stated that despite a strong business situation, the company must avoid excessive institutional hierarchy to maintain a lean, focused team. This operational restructuring coincides with a critical revenue challenge: shrinking institutional trading volumes have caused cryptocurrency trading revenue to decline significantly, nearly halving to $134 million in the first quarter, with expectations to drop further in the second quarter.

The primary driver of current revenue growth is a surge in prediction market activity. According to analyst Dr. Crossroads, as of June 25, Robinhood's second-quarter event contract trading volume reached approximately 12.3 billion contracts. Based on a revenue share of 1 cent per contract, this segment is projected to generate at least $123 million in revenue for the quarter, with annualized revenue potentially hitting $500 million. This marks a potential milestone where prediction market revenue surpasses cryptocurrency trading revenue for the first time. The newly launched prediction market platform Rothera alone surpassed 900 million contracts in its first week, contributing nearly 60% of potential contract trading increments. To sustain this momentum, the company plans to reduce fees from 2 cents per contract to 0.6 cents, leveraging price advantages to retain volume and revenue within its ecosystem. Ultimately, the sustainability of Robinhood's business model depends on whether it can successfully integrate stocks, crypto, prediction markets, tokenized assets, stablecoin yields, and AI trading into a cohesive, profitable system within the same account structure.