Robinhood has rolled out a developer-focused version of its own blockchain, Robinhood Chain, now live in a testnet environment. The move was announced at the Consensus event in Hong Kong as the company accelerates its push into crypto-based financial services, including tokenized versions of popular stocks. Robinhood Chain had been teased last June and is currently in the testnet phase. Robinhood Chain is built on Arbitrum, a Layer 2 technology that sits atop Ethereum and is designed to process transactions in batches to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
Arbitrum is one of two dominant Layer 2 solutions in the Ethereum ecosystem, with Optimism serving as the other, used by Coinbase for its Base blockchain. Robinhood’s crypto chief, Johann Kerbrat, told Fortune that when the mainnet goes live, customers will be able to interact directly with the network. Kerbrat added that Robinhood Chain will support transactions in both its self-custody crypto wallet and the main Robinhood app, and he noted that for customers, the experience should be seamless, with many users unaware they are using a blockchain.
Robinhood’s push toward tokenization reflects a broader strategy to turn various assets into digital tokens that can be traded on a blockchain, including stocks. CEO Vlad Tenev has described tokenization as a freight train coming to financial markets. Tokens, once issued, can be traded on the blockchain much like other digital assets.
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