Robinhood expanded its crypto product set with staking, micro and perpetual futures, and tokenized U.S. equities, marking a strategic push beyond retail spot trading. The company rolled out stock tokens in Europe on June 30, 2025 and launched U.S. staking for Ethereum and Solana on December 9, 2025, moves aimed at widening product access and trading hours for retail and cross-border users.
Expanded crypto instruments and new Layer-2 rails
Robinhood introduced staking for ETH and SOL in the U.S. and added micro futures contracts for Bitcoin, Solana and XRP to provide more granular derivatives exposure. Staking is a protocol mechanism that secures proof-of-stake networks in return for rewards, while micro futures are smaller-sized derivative contracts that give retail traders more precise exposure to volatile assets.
In Europe, the firm launched “stock tokens” that mirror the price movements of more than 200 U.S. stocks and ETFs, trade around the clock with 24/5 availability, and replicate dividend payments through a tokenized wrapper. These tokens carry zero commission from Robinhood but incur a 0.1% foreign-exchange fee. Separately, European customers gained access to crypto perpetual futures offering up to 3x leverage; those products were routed through Bitstamp and cover assets beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, including XRP, Dogecoin and SUI. A perpetual future is a derivative that provides continuous exposure to an asset’s price without an expiry date.
To underpin tokenization and 24/7 rails, Robinhood disclosed a proprietary Layer-2 blockchain, referred to as Robinhood Chain and built on the Arbitrum stack, to power real-world asset tokenization and cross-chain bridging while improving scalability. A Layer-2 blockchain is a secondary protocol layered over a base chain to increase transaction throughput and reduce fees.
The company expanded its footprint to 31 countries from an initial six, pursuing strategic acquisitions to embed locally. On December 8, 2025, Robinhood acquired Indonesian broker PT Buana Capital Sekuritas and licensed digital asset trader PT Pedagang Aset Kripto, moves positioned to capture Southeast Asian retail adoption. Earlier purchases, including Bitstamp and WonderFi, were cited as enabling infrastructure and market access for its derivatives and tokenized products.
The product suite widens instrument choice for retail traders, crypto treasuries and institutional users, but it also introduces notable risks. Derivatives such as leveraged perpetuals increase counterparty and liquidation risk for retail clients, and tokenized equity wrappers raise custody and regulatory questions distinct from direct share ownership. The firm’s bet on a proprietary Layer-2 aims to lower latency and fees, but it concentrates execution and settlement risk within an internal stack.
Robinhood’s move broadens accessible crypto instruments and advances its stated goal to become an all-in-one investment platform. By shifting more activity onto proprietary rails and tokenized wrappers, the changes will test adoption among traders and treasuries while raising regulatory and custody considerations as markets adjust.
