Robinhood Launches Layer-2 Mainnet, Plans UK Crypto Trading Push

Robinhood, the U.S. stock and cryptocurrency trading platform, has officially launched its own public blockchain mainnet and outlined plans to expand its crypto trading service in the UK.

Cointelegraph reported on July 1 that Robinhood had launched the mainnet for Robinhood Chain, a Layer-2 blockchain built on Arbitrum. The debut comes about four months after the company rolled out a testnet in February. Robinhood described the blockchain as an AI-native network tailored for real-world asset trading.

Robinhood also plans to launch crypto trading services in the UK soon. Its tokenized stock products are already available to users in more than 120 countries through its self-custody wallet app. Chief Executive Officer Vlad Tenev said in January that tokenized stocks were "inevitable" and would help prevent the periodic trading halts that occur on traditional exchanges.

The mainnet launch came weeks after Tenev announced plans to cut 10% of Robinhood's workforce as part of a restructuring. In April, the company said first-quarter crypto trading fee revenue fell about 50% from a year earlier to $134 million. Robinhood is scheduled to report second-quarter results on July 29.

Robinhood also unveiled Robinhood Earn, a decentralized finance product. The service allows users to lend the dollar-pegged stablecoin USDG through a self-custody wallet and earn annual returns of about 7%. Robinhood shares rose about 8% on the day the mainnet launch was reported.