Robinhood expands blockchain strategy with an Ethereum L2… focused on tokenized stocks and staking

U.S. online brokerage Robinhood is rapidly broadening its business scope over the past year by stepping up investment in blockchain infrastructure, rolling out tokenized stocks, staking products, and building an Ethereum (ETH)-based layer-2 (L2) network.

According to Cointelegraph on the 11th (local time), Johann Kerbrat, head of Robinhood’s crypto (cryptocurrency) division, said, “After considering which option between layer 1 (L1) and L2 would be appropriate, we chose L2, which allows us to leverage Ethereum’s security and decentralization as well as the liquidity of the EVM ecosystem.”

He emphasized that with this structure, core infrastructure issues—security and decentralization—are delegated to Ethereum, enabling Robinhood to focus on developing services such as tokenized stocks. Robinhood’s in-house L2 chain is currently in a private testnet phase, and a specific public launch schedule has not yet been set.

Previously, Robinhood first launched its tokenized stock service on Arbitrum (ARB), Ethereum’s largest rollup network. The number of tokenized stocks, which was about 200 at the initial launch, has now surpassed 2,000, and the offering is being expanded quickly in response to customer demand. Kerbrat said, “Because we can carry over assets and liquidity as-is on Arbitrum, even if our own chain goes live later, there is no need for a separate, complex migration process.”

Robinhood is also putting weight behind crypto-native products such as staking. The strategy was to introduce staking first in Europe, where regulatory uncertainty was relatively lower, and then expand to the U.S. market after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) refined its guidelines.

Kerbrat projected that as a range of real-world assets—not only stocks but also private funds, real estate, and artworks—move on-chain, new revenue models and lending and financial services will emerge. To that end, Robinhood has made clear its policy: “We will focus on moving the assets themselves on-chain.”