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Robinhood has launched the public testnet of the Robinhood Chain, a financial level 2 Ethereum network built on Arbitrum. Johan Kerbrat, senior vice president and general manager of Robinhood’s Crypto division, announced the launch of the testnet at the Consensus Hong Kong conference on Wednesday, marking the first public development phase for a series that was first referenced in the company’s opening keynote at Cannes last year.
In an interview with BeInCrypto in Hong Kong ahead of the announcement, Kerbrat explained the company’s vision for the chain, including real-world tokenized assets, 24/7 trading, and a $1 million developer hackathon.
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Why build your own series
Open test network access to network entry points, documentation for developers, and full compatibility with standard Ethereum development tools. Ecosystem partners, including Alchemy and LayerZero, are already building on the chain.
The launch came at a critical time. Robinhood reported revenue of $1.28 billion The fourth quarter on Tuesday, missing analysts’ expectations of $1.35 billion. Cryptocurrency transaction revenue fell to $221 million from $268 million in the previous quarter as Bitcoin fell 23% during that period. The company’s stock retreated from an all-time high of $154 in October amid a general downturn in the cryptocurrency market.
Join Robinhood for the first time Tokenized US stocks To EU customers in July 2025 through a partnership with Arbitrum, which offers commission-free tokens linked to more than 200 US stocks and ETFs. The product now covers more than 1,000 stock symbols across the EU and the European Economic Area. But the company still plans to move into its own series.
Kerbrat told BeInCrypto that it was a two-step process from the start. Arbitrum technology allows you to launch your product first on Arbitrum One and then move it to your own chain.
The central reason focuses on personalization. Public Layer 2 networks manage compliance at the smart contract level, but Robinhood Chain integrates regulatory requirements directly into the chain layer. This difference is important for tokenized securities, as the issuance and cancellation of share tokens must comply with different laws according to each jurisdiction.
The chain itself has been unrestricted – anyone can build on it – but the products that Robinhood develops on it are designed specifically for regulated financial services.
From stock tokens to real assets
Tokenized public shares start as a starting point, but Robinhood’s aspirations extend beyond listed stocks. Kerbrat said the company’s tokenization engine was ultimately designed to support private equity, real estate, art and other real-world assets.
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Expanding trading hours was a key part of the value proposition. Robinhood’s stock symbols are currently trading 24 hours a day, five days a week. The move to Robinhood Chain is expected to enable 24/7 trading – eliminating the remaining gaps associated with traditional market calendars.
Instant settlement and self-custody are also on the roadmap, along with integration with liquidity pools and lending protocols. Together, these features represent a significant upgrade over the current tokenized stock product, which is based on the Arbitrum One infrastructure.
Focus on the developer ecosystem and decentralized finance (DeFi).
In the immediate future, he focused on attracting developers to build decentralized trading platforms, perpetual trading platforms, and lending protocols on the Robinhood chain, which are a natural extension of his existing brokerage and cryptocurrency products.
They plan to launch a series of hackathons in multiple geographies with a total prize pool of $1 million to strengthen the ecosystem. Kerbera said the focus will be entirely on financial applications.
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Expansion in the Asia Pacific region
The launch of the testnet in Consensius Hong Kong coincides with Robinhood’s growing expansion in the Asia-Pacific region. Robinhood finished Acquisition of Bitstamp for $200 million in June 2025, giving access to more than 50 active licenses and registrations worldwide, in addition to its institutional cryptocurrency-as-a-service business.
Kirbra explained that the event provided an opportunity to meet Bitstamp customers based in Singapore in person. Through the acquisition, Robinhood obtained licenses in Singapore and Indonesia. It also bought two small Indonesian companies to build a local presence.
Indonesia, which has around 13 million digital currency users, is… priority market. Kerbera said initial conversations with Indonesian regulators have been positive, with discussions focused on anti-money laundering compliance and risk disclosure rather than addressing resistance to entering the company.
Kerbera emphasized that Robinhood’s regulatory history — which includes FINRA, the Financial Services Authority in New York, the EU’s MiCA framework, and MAS in Singapore — gives the company confidence in navigating different jurisdictions.
Diversify the revenue model
The weak financial performance in the fourth quarter revealed a permanent concern: Robinhood’s heavy reliance on transaction-based revenue, particularly from cryptocurrency trading. The company seeks to diversify its sources of income in several directions.
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The staking service was launched in the United States in 2025, when the value of mortgaged assets reached about one billion dollars. Robinhood itself aims to produce new forms of infrastructure-related revenue in the long term.
Robinhood has invested in advanced tools to attract high-frequency and high-volume traders into the trading space — a category that provides a more stable base for revenue even in weak markets, Kerbra says. as well as The company has expanded the fare categories from three to sevenwith rates as low as 0.03% for high volume traders.
The institutional channel has also seen growth. Bitstamp’s Cryptocurrency-as-a-Service enables banks, hedge funds and family wealth management offices to make digital currencies available to their clients. Kerbera noted that institutions typically enter the market during recessions, providing a countercyclical cushion.
Meanwhile, the prediction markets emerged as a notable positive. CEO Vlad Tenev said at a company event in December that prediction markets are Robinhood’s “fastest growing product line by revenue,” with 11 billion contracts traded by more than 1 million customers.
What is the next step?
Begin the public testing phase as the first step in a multi-stage launch process. Robinhood plans to move its existing stock token products on-chain before eventually moving to the mainnet. A specific timeline for the mainnet launch has not been revealed.
Tenev stated in the company’s fourth quarter earnings report that the company’s vision has not changed: We are trying to build the end-to-end financial application.
