Discover top fintech news and events!
Subscribe to FinTech Weekly's newsletter
Read by executives at JP Morgan, Coinbase, Blackrock, Klarna and more
Robinhood Tokenization Effort Brings 24/5 Stock Trading to European Investors
Robinhood has launched a broad initiative to tokenize stocks and ETFs for European users, marking a significant departure from traditional financial market structures. The rollout, centered on Ethereum's layer-two solution Arbitrum, aims to enable low-cost, nearly continuous trading of U.S. securities by converting them into digital tokens.
The move follows a broader trend in the fintech industry toward tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs), a process that allows for fractional ownership, more flexible settlement, and increased market accessibility. For Robinhood, this launch signals a deliberate expansion from being a crypto-only app in the EU to a multi-asset investment platform using blockchain infrastructure.
From Trading Hours to Market Fluidity
Historically, public equity markets have operated within strict time frames—roughly 6.5 hours a day, five days a week. Robinhood’s tokenization strategy aims to challenge that standard by offering 24/5 trading, allowing users to access tokenized versions of stocks such as OpenAI-linked equities and private companies like SpaceX outside of standard U.S. market hours.
This shift effectively decouples trading activity from centralized exchanges and legacy infrastructure. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, speaking during a recent industry roundtable, described this development as indicative of a larger industry transition, calling current market hours outdated in the context of today’s digital economy.
Robinhood’s offering begins with over 200 tokenized stocks and ETFs, available commission-free for eligible customers. These tokens mirror the economic rights of their underlying assets, including dividend distributions, while being issued and settled entirely onchain via Arbitrum.
A New Use Case for Layer-Two Networks
Robinhood’s decision to leverage Arbitrum is not incidental. Ethereum’s main network is often criticized for its high transaction fees and limited scalability. Layer-two networks like Arbitrum aim to solve those issues by processing transactions more efficiently and settling them periodically on Ethereum’s base layer.
The integration of real-world financial instruments like equities into such a system underscores the expanding role of public blockchains beyond crypto-native assets. Robinhood also plans to develop its own layer-two blockchain, built on Arbitrum, that will specialize in the tokenization of real-world assets, including stocks and potentially other investment products. The initiative would support faster transactions, improved interoperability, and features like self-custody.
For Ethereum and Arbitrum, Robinhood’s endorsement could mean increased transaction volume and mainstream visibility—particularly from institutional and retail investors who have not previously interacted with decentralized infrastructure.
Access Without Borders, Not Without Limits
While Robinhood’s tokenized stock products are limited to European Union and European Economic Area customers for now, the company’s broader ambitions suggest a global scope. This expansion circumvents several traditional obstacles that often hinder cross-border investment, such as foreign exchange restrictions, intermediary fees, and delayed settlements.
Tokenized equities also introduce the potential for fractional share ownership. Instead of purchasing entire shares of high-priced U.S. stocks, investors can own fractions, lowering the barrier to entry for younger or less capitalized market participants.
However, it’s worth noting that access comes with limitations. These tokenized assets are not currently available to U.S. residents, and eligibility criteria vary by jurisdiction. Regulatory frameworks for tokenized securities are still evolving, and while the SEC recently signaled openness to this form of financial innovation, implementation remains fragmented.
Broader Implications for Financial Infrastructure
Robinhood’s tokenization strategy fits within a larger expansion of its crypto suite, which includes perpetual futures in the EU and staking for Ethereum and Solana in both the U.S. and Europe. The firm has also introduced a range of features such as smart exchange routing, AI-driven trading assistants, and deposit incentives for crypto transfers.
Yet, the most consequential move remains its pivot toward onchain equities. This places Robinhood among a growing cohort of platforms—such as Gemini and Kraken—that are incorporating tokenized stocks into their service models. Gemini, for example, recently began offering tokenized MicroStrategy (MSTR) shares through a partnership with Dinari.
The Robinhood model differs by aiming to integrate tokenization more deeply into its app’s core functionality and by committing to infrastructure development through its own blockchain.
The Regulatory Question
Despite the technological promise, regulatory concerns remain. In the United States, where tokenized securities have historically faced legal scrutiny, platforms must tread carefully. Two years ago, a product like Robinhood’s could have triggered immediate legal action. That has changed recently, as U.S. regulators begin to differentiate between tokens used for speculation and those representing actual financial rights.
Even so, questions about investor protections, disclosure requirements, and custodianship linger. Robinhood’s approach—partnering with regulated entities and limiting access based on local rules—reflects an effort to stay ahead of potential compliance issues, but the broader industry will need more clarity from regulators to proceed at scale.
Conclusion
Robinhood’s tokenization initiative reflects a broader trend toward modernizing how investors interact with traditional assets. By issuing stock tokens on Arbitrum and moving toward continuous, onchain settlement, the platform is positioning itself as a gateway to a more flexible and accessible financial system.
Whether this effort becomes a blueprint for others or remains a regional experiment will depend on how well the model scales, how regulators respond, and whether investors embrace tokenized financial products over their traditional counterparts. Either way, the conversation about real-world asset tokenization has officially moved from theory to application—and Robinhood is putting itself at the center of that shift.
