Robinhood just shipped its own blockchain. The company launched the public mainnet of Robinhood Chain on July 1, an Arbitrum-based Ethereum Layer 2 network unveiled during a keynote event in London by CEO Vlad Tenev and SVP Johann Kerbrat.

The chain isn’t just another L2 looking for a reason to exist. It’s designed to let users trade tokenized US equities and ETFs around the clock, access DeFi lending products, and interact with decentralized exchanges, all through Robinhood Wallet. The service is available to users in over 120 countries, though notably not to US persons.

What Robinhood Chain actually does

The core product here is Stock Tokens, which are tokenized versions of US equities and ETFs. In English: Robinhood is putting traditional stocks on a blockchain so they can be traded 24/7 and used as collateral in DeFi applications. That’s a meaningful difference from just listing crypto assets on a centralized exchange.

Alongside the chain launch, Robinhood introduced Robinhood Earn, a lending product offering an estimated 7% annual percentage yield on USDG stablecoins. The product is backed by Lloyd’s insurance, which adds a layer of institutional credibility that most DeFi lending protocols can’t match.

The chain has also integrated with Uniswap, one of the largest decentralized exchanges, to facilitate trading and liquidity. Other infrastructure partners include Alchemy, BitGo, and Chainlink. To sweeten the launch, Robinhood is covering gas fees for the first 90 days for selected Wallet users.

From testnet to mainnet, faster than expected

Robinhood Chain’s public testnet went live on February 10, 2026, at the Consensus event in Hong Kong. The testnet processed roughly 4 million transactions in its first week alone, which apparently gave the team enough confidence to push the mainnet launch ahead of schedule.

The chain is designed to be permissionless, meaning developers can build on it without needing Robinhood’s approval. That’s a deliberate architectural choice that signals the company wants third-party DeFi protocols to set up shop on its network, not just serve as a walled garden for Robinhood’s own products.

The global expansion playbook

The London keynote wasn’t just about the chain launch. It was also a statement about Robinhood’s international ambitions, which have been accelerating rapidly.

The company recently completed its $180 million acquisition of WonderFi to support its push into the Canadian market. It has secured a capital markets services license in Singapore. And it’s planning to roll out crypto trading services in the UK, along with expanded perpetual futures offerings across Europe.

By excluding US persons from Stock Tokens while aggressively expanding internationally, Robinhood is effectively building a parallel business that isn’t constrained by the SEC’s approach to tokenized securities. The US regulatory environment has made it functionally impossible to offer tokenized stocks domestically without navigating a thicket of securities law. Robinhood’s solution: build for everyone else first.

The 7% APY on USDG through Robinhood Earn, combined with Lloyd’s insurance backing, positions the product somewhere between traditional savings accounts and DeFi yields. For context, most major US banks still offer savings rates well below that level.

The integration with Uniswap deserves particular attention. If significant liquidity pools form around Stock Tokens on Uniswap, it could create a new category of DeFi activity that blends traditional equity exposure with on-chain composability.

The first 90 days of covered gas fees suggest the company knows onboarding friction is a real barrier. What happens when those subsidies expire will be a telling indicator of genuine demand versus launch-week curiosity.