I think the market has significantly underestimated Robinhood's move into public blockchains.
Many people's immediate reaction upon seeing the news was:
HOOD launched a Layer 2.
But I think what they really want to build isn't a public blockchain at all—it's an Onchain Nasdaq.
That’s the real development worth watching.
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For the past few decades, the underlying infrastructure of U.S. stock trading has barely changed.
User places order → Broker → Exchange → Clearinghouse → T+1 settlement.
What Robinhood wants to change is precisely this underlying infrastructure.
On July 1, Robinhood Chain officially launched its mainnet—a Layer 2 Ethereum chain built on the Arbitrum Orbit tech stack, specifically designed for tokenizing traditional securities like stocks and ETFs.
In the future, one share of Apple, one share of NVIDIA, and one share of Tesla could each essentially become a token on-chain, tradable 24/7 and accessible in over 120 countries and regions (U.S. users are not yet included).
For the first time, stocks are becoming truly composable assets.
They can not only be bought and sold but also:
• Traded 24/7
• Used as collateral for lending (Robinhood has already launched an on-chain lending product offering approximately 7% annualized yield)
• Participate in ...