|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Robinhood has put $25 million of bitcoin on its own balance sheet. The company says the purchase is a statement of intent, not a financial bet.
Why Robinhood Bought Bitcoin
Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s senior vice president and general manager of crypto and international, discussed the purchase on Wednesday in an exclusive interview with The Block’s The Starting Block. He described it as a way to line up the company’s vision with the crypto community. “We care deeply about bitcoin and the ecosystem around it,” he said.
Kerbrat was upfront about the scale. With a market capitalization of around $100 billion, Robinhood is large enough that $25 million won’t shift its trajectory. Its Nasdaq-listed shares closed Tuesday at $112, down 1.85%. The purchase is a signal, not a treasury strategy.
How It Compares to Other Corporate Buyers
Other public companies are still adding bitcoin, and at a much larger scale. Strategy said Monday it bought 334 BTC for roughly $28.7 million, at an average price of $85,838.80 per coin, between Sept. 28 and Oct. 4. That brings its total to 848,000 BTC. Robinhood’s purchase is similar in dollar terms to one week of Strategy’s buying, but Robinhood is a trading platform, not a bitcoin treasury company.
Perps, a New Chain and Tokenized Stocks
The purchase fits a broader expansion. Last week Robinhood said it plans to roll out perpetual futures in the coming months for eligible U.S. users. Traders will be able to go long or short on BTC, ether, Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, ADA, LINK and HYPE. CEO Vlad Tenev said the product has no expiry and settles profit and loss every 15 minutes. He called it a new chapter for U.S. derivatives.
Robinhood Chain, a Layer 2 built on Arbitrum’s technology stack, went live on public mainnet in July. According to The Block’s data dashboard, its total value locked reached $1.05 billion as of Tuesday. The company has also launched Stock Tokens, which let eligible users trade 24/7 on the chain.
Kerbrat argues distribution is Robinhood’s edge. The platform has 28 million funded accounts, 27 million in the U.S. and 1 million elsewhere. Its wallet, the official one for Robinhood Chain, is available in more than 120 countries. “This is probably the first time that an L2 is connected to such a large distribution,” he said.
Also Read: Ondo Private Markets Launches Tokenized Pre-IPO AI Exposure
Regulatory Limits on Stock Tokens
There is one constraint. Kerbrat said in a separate interview last week that stock-token volume is already high enough to approach the caps in the SEC’s innovation exemption for tokenized U.S. equities. The exemption limits both trading volume and the types of assets that can be tokenized. “We’re still trying to understand all the parameters of it,” he said.
What to Watch
The bitcoin purchase is small for a company of Robinhood’s size, but it shows where the business wants to be seen. The bigger tests are the perps launch, whether Robinhood Chain keeps growing from $1.05 billion in TVL, and how the SEC’s exemption limits shape the tokenized stock business.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author’s views are personal and may not reflect the views of Chain Affairs. Before making any investment decisions, you should always conduct your own research. Chain Affairs is not responsible for any financial losses.
