Two Wolves, One Chain: Robinhood Lets the Suits and the Degens Share a Bed 🐺🐺

Robinhood Chain, the Ethereum layer-2 network launched by trading platform Robinhood, has accumulated nearly $800 million in total value locked and processed more than 200 million transactions in just over a month online, according to Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood's general manager of crypto and international business. Kerbrat disclosed the figures in an exclusive interview with FOMO Hour on Friday and a separate conversation with Decrypt.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev framed the strategy in a July 17 post on X featuring a "two wolves" meme, writing "Why not both?" Kerbrat said the image captures the company's intent to balance institutional-grade offerings, such as tokenized equities and derivatives, with the meme tokens that drive user engagement on the network.

The chain currently supports roughly 200 tokenized stocks that can be traded around the clock, stablecoin lending, and perpetual futures contracts. Kerbrat said the 24/7 access lets retail users hedge positions or react to news released after traditional exchanges close. "The world doesn't stop on weekends," he told Decrypt. "News is happening on Fridays after market close, and people want to be able to hedge their position, which was something that was not really available to retail until recently."

Robinhood selected a layer-2 architecture over building a standalone layer-1 blockchain to leverage the security and decentralization of Ethereum while concentrating internal resources on product development. Kerbrat said the company is tracking deposits, transaction volume, and developer activity as early adoption metrics. "I want the chain to not just be the chain for Robinhood, but also be the chain that anyone can use and interact with our product, like our stock tokens, but also everything else that we are building," he said on FOMO Hour.

Meme tokens remain a deliberate focus for the network. "We think memes are an important part of crypto. We think that for a new chain, like Robinhood Chain, these tokens have value. They bring liquidity, they bring interest from customers, especially the DeFi-type of customer that we want to attract," Kerbrat said. Robinhood Chain's deployment is part of the firm's broader effort to bring brokerage products on-chain, with Kerbrat adding that the company will monitor which products resonate and where developers choose to build.