Robinhood Launches Public Mainnet for its Layer 2 Blockchain
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- Robinhood has launched its public mainnet for Robinhood Chain, an AI-native L2 blockchain built on Arbitrum.
- The company also plans crypto trading in the UK and offers tokenized stocks globally, amid expansion into DeFi services.
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Robinhood has launched its public mainnet for Robinhood Chain, an L2 blockchain built on Arbitrum, after a February testnet phase. This launch aligns with the company's expansion into crypto and decentralized finance services.
Stock and cryptocurrency trading platform Robinhood announced the launch of its public mainnet about four months after it began testing the network.
On Wednesday, the company said Robinhood Chain, a layer 2 (L2) blockchain built on Arbitrum, had officially launched after the network went live on testnet in February. The blockchain, which the company described as “AI-native and purpose-built for real-world assets,” comes amid Robinhood's expansion of crypto- and decentralized finance-related services.
According to Robinhood, it plans to launch crypto trading in the UK soon. The company also said that its tokenized stock products were live and available through its wallet app to users in more than 120 countries. CEO Vlad Tenev called tokenized stocks “inevitable” in January, arguing that offering the products could help prevent trading freezes that sometimes occur on traditional exchanges.
Source: Robinhood
The launch of the public mainnet came just a few weeks after Tenev announced that Robinhood would cut 10% of its workforce as part of a restructuring move. The company is expected to announce its 2026 second-quarter results on July 29, but reported in April that its crypto transaction revenue dropped by almost 50% year-on-year, from $252 million to $134 million.
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The company also introduced Robinhood Earn, a decentralized product that allows users to lend USDG, a dollar-backed stablecoin, through a self-custody wallet at an estimated 7% annual percentage yield. Robinhood shares rose about 8% on Wednesday.
Base’s L2 network reports back-to-back outages
Robinhood is entering an increasingly competitive L2 market dominated by networks such as Base, the Coinbase-backed blockchain.
In June, Base experienced two outages within hours of each other, which the engineering team later reported had been the result of a sequencer bug. The mainnet is the second-largest layer 2 network by total value secured at about $11 billion.
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Robinhood to launch crypto trading in the UK soon.
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Offene Fragen
- Will Robinhood Chain gain significant adoption?
- How will Robinhood compete in the L2 market?
- What is the long-term impact of tokenized stocks?
