How Robinhood’s New Crypto Strategy Could Help Its TradFi Ambitions

As a long-time observer and analyst in the fintech space, I like to believe that I have a different viewpoint from many traditional crypto analysts when it comes to evaluating the industry. This background proved to be very useful to me as I tried to make sense of Robinhood’s grand crypto ambitions.

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How Robinhood’s New Crypto Strategy Could Help Its TradFi Ambitions

In some quarters, Robinhood generates more income from selling crypto than stocks, its bread and butter. But as it moves deeper into the industry, its efforts could have a bigger impact on its traditional business.

Fintech giant Robinhood (HOOD) announced strong results for the second quarter of 2025. The company reported $989 million in total net revenue, up 45% year over year, and a 105% increase in net income to $386 million. Transaction revenue, which makes up the bulk of the company’s top line, advanced 65% to $539 million, and included a 98% bump in crypto revenue to $160 million.

Crypto revenue is a major contributor to revenue growth, but its volatility is a concern. In Q4 2024, crypto contributed 35% of Robinhood’s total net revenue, clocking in at a whopping $358 million. In Q1 2025, crypto dropped to 27% of total revenue, or $252 million. Other drivers of transaction revenue are far more stable — for example, options revenue came in at $265 million in Q2, $240 million in Q1, and $222 million in Q4 of last year. 

While enthusiasm for crypto is undoubtedly helpful for Robinhood, massive swings in what crypto contributes to the total top-line number risk impacting the stock price long term. But it seems the company is eyeing a solution. That’s why observers need to look at their crypto ambitions in a different light.

In current focus should be Robinhood’s larger ambitions in the crypto arena, especially on the heels of its Cannes event, “To Catch a Token,” in June, at which it unveiled a slew of new features for its crypto users in the U.S. and EU, including perpetual futures and tokenized stock trading in Europe and crypto staking in the U.S.

Solving for Crypto Exposure With Tokenization

Robinhood is well aware that its crypto exposure is both a strength and a vulnerability. CEO Vlad Tenev has talked openly about the company’s plans to diversify and become less reliant on crypto trading volumes. Those efforts are myriad, but a key piece of this strategy is doubling down on crypto itself in ways that speak to its roots as a brokerage. 

In particular, its tokenization push is a major part of its crypto diversification strategy. It also points to its ambitions for its foundational brokerage business. “The first purpose [of the newly announced offerings] is obviously to deliver great products to users,” Tenev explained in an interview with CNBC after the June event. “But I think the second purpose is to just illustrate, to demonstrate very concretely how great it could be if crypto technology and traditional financial services could fully merge.”

Stock tokenization opens up a host of possibilities, from fractional stock trading to trading of other assets, including private company shares. In theory, anything could be tokenized and traded this way, from art to wine. All of those possibilities are part of a crypto push that advances Robinhood’s core business. If successful, tokenization represents a way for Robinhood to dramatically expand its touchpoints with investors through new asset classes, deeply diversifying transaction revenue.

It’s already making moves in some of these arenas. In particular, Robinhood made a controversial splash in June when it announced it would be offering tokenized shares of OpenAI and SpaceX. The company received some backlash, prompting Tenev to clarify that such tokens were derivatives rather than actual equity in those companies. Nevertheless, the ability to offer tokens pegged to the value of previously hard-to-access assets, such as equity in highly sought after private companies, is likely to be attractive to investors. On its Q2 earnings call, Tenev called tokenization the “biggest innovation in capital markets in over a decade.” A recent McKinsey report suggests that the tokenization market could reach $2 trillion by the end of the decade.

Robinhood is not the only company wading into tokenized trading — Gemini also launched tokenized trading in the EU in June, for example — but its large and deeply engaged investor base on the traditional trading side positions it well. The company is also developing its own blockchain technology to underpin these efforts, dubbed Robinhood Chain. Europe is likely to serve as a proving ground for this offering, with aspirations to bring it global already very clear, and in the U.S, in particular, dependent on regulation. 

A Bigger Vision

When Robinhood executives talk about the crypto opportunity, it is increasingly less about trading volumes and more about the technology itself, and how that technology could potentially underpin its entire business. As Johann Kerbrat, general manager of Robinhood Crypto, put it in Cannes, there are really two ways to look at the crypto opportunity: one is through the lens of tradable assets like Bitcoin and Solana, the other is as a fundamental piece of technology that could reshape financial services. “I think this second idea is really underexplored,” Kerbrat said. Meanwhile, during his keynote, Tenev posited, “What would Robinhood look like if it was rebuilt from the ground up entirely on crypto technology?”

Looking at Robinhood’s product offerings gives us a clue. According to John Todaro, managing director at Needham & Company, cited by Forbes, Robinhood has 10 business lines expected to generate over $100 million in revenue in 2 years. These include its Robinhood Gold subscription product, through which it offers a host of perks, and the Robinhood Gold credit card, as well as its advisory offering, Robinhood Strategies. In the latest quarter, Robinhood Gold subscribers grew by 1.5 million, or 76%, year over year, to 3.5 million. It seems Robinhood’s goal could be to explore how to use crypto technology to drive growth across these other engines. Tokenization is one major example, but it’s popping up elsewhere as well. For instance, in the fall, Robinhood Gold credit card holders will be able to convert their rewards into crypto via the Crypto Back offering. The company could use the tech in other ways to either cut costs or offer new products.

Robinhood’s ambitions inside and outside of crypto are big. It wants to be a global financial titan, and it plans to use crypto infrastructure to get there. Recent moves like the addition of crypto exchange Bitstamp, which it purchased in Q2, plans to acquire Canadian digital asset platform WonderFI, and the Robinhood Chain announcement, signal that it is serious about laying the groundwork. This isn’t just about coins anymore, it’s an infrastructure play. And it’s a big one — one that points not only to the future of Robinhood but to the future of finance. 

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