Robinhood Launches Layer-2 Mainnet With Tokenized Stocks in 120 Countries

Robinhood (HOOD) has launched the public mainnet of Robinhood Chain, a Layer-2 blockchain built on Arbitrum, bringing tokenized stock trading live in more than 120 countries and introducing a new decentralized lending product. The announcement was made at a Wednesday event in London.

Robinhood Chain is designed for tokenized real-world assets and decentralized finance applications. The network had been operating on testnet for approximately four months before Wednesday's mainnet launch. The blockchain represents the company's most significant move into onchain financial infrastructure to date.

Stock Tokens are now fully live and accessible through Robinhood Wallet across more than 120 jurisdictions, though availability varies by country. The product is designed to enable around-the-clock trading of tokenized equities, with tokens also usable in DeFi applications such as lending protocols and as trading collateral.

Alongside the mainnet launch, Robinhood introduced Robinhood Earn, a decentralized lending product tied to USDG, the company's dollar-backed stablecoin. Users can lend USDG through a self-custody wallet and receive an estimated annual percentage yield of 7%. The product requires no custodial intermediary.

The company also announced several additional product and geographic expansions. Perpetual futures trading in Europe will be extended to include commodities, ETFs and foreign exchange markets in addition to crypto. Robinhood plans to launch crypto trading in the United Kingdom and confirmed its services are now available in Canada following the completed acquisition of WonderFi.

For U.S. users, Robinhood unveiled Agentic Accounts for crypto, an AI-powered trading tool that allows eligible users to connect artificial intelligence models to the company's trading infrastructure. Users retain control over capital allocation and trading parameters.

'Decentralized finance unlocks possibilities beyond what traditional finance can offer, but historically, it has required technical expertise to navigate,' said Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood's senior vice president and general manager of Crypto and International.

The mainnet launch follows a separate disclosure made last month in which Robinhood said it would reduce its workforce by 10%, cutting approximately 290 positions as part of an effort to streamline its organizational structure.

HOOD shares rose 5% on the day of the announcement, though the stock remains approximately 30% below its record high set in October.