Compiled & Organized by Shenchao TechFlow
Guest: Johann Kerbrat, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Crypto and International Business at Robinhood
Podcast source: TheRollup
Johann Kerbrat: Inside Robinhood’s Crypto Strategy (Full Explanation)
Broadcast date: July 24, 2026
Disclosure of Interests
Johann Kerbrat, a Robinhood executive overseeing the entire crypto product line—including Robinhood Chain, tokenized stocks, staking services, and perpetual contracts—has compensation and equity incentives directly tied to the price of $HOOD stock. All discussions in this episode regarding Robinhood Chain pertain to his directly managed business. The use of “Insider Perspective” in the title, rather than “Analysis,” reflects this conflict of interest.
Summary
Three weeks after the mainnet launch of Robinhood Chain, weekly DEX trading volume has exceeded $3 billion, with over 105 million transactions and a TVL surpassing $300 million. Johann Kerbrat provided the first in-depth explanation of the chain’s strategic logic on a podcast: why a “barbell” approach—parallel development of meme tokens and real-world assets—was chosen, why the Arbitrum tech stack was adopted instead of building a custom L1, and how the platform plans to gradually migrate its 27 million funded accounts onto the chain. He explicitly stated that the competitive focus is on “expanding the pie” rather than competing with Base for market share, and revealed that tokenized stocks are already available across 120+ countries and 90+ assets, with future expansion planned to include international equities and private markets.
Key quotes
Our philosophy is to make the chain permissionless and open to everything—whether it’s memecoins, RWA, or many other products. We are deeply integrating with the chain.
Robinhood has 27 million funded accounts. For these users, DeFi is still too complex and requires too much technical knowledge. Our goal is to bring the best DeFi products to them while making them easy to use and accessible—without requiring users to create wallets or manage private keys.
I believe competition ultimately benefits customers. We slashed our fees significantly when we launched crypto trading. The on-chain space is still too early to discuss market share.
We’ve only been live for three weeks. If you’re thinking about bringing tens of millions of users on-chain, adding more utility, and creating things people will actually use—not just short-term volatility—you’re thinking about a long-term revenue source.
We don’t want to see all of Robinhood’s trading activity next year migrate entirely on-chain—that’s a bit of a dream. But if blockchain can enable things traditional systems can’t, like international stocks or 24/7 trading, then it could become the solution.
I. Three Weeks of Data: $3 Billion Weekly Trading Volume Is Just the Beginning
The host opened with a set of figures: Since the mainnet launch of Robinhood Chain, weekly DEX trading volume has reached $3 billion, with over 50 million transactions, more than 1 million unique addresses, and a TVL exceeding $300 million.
Kerbrat’s response was straightforward: these figures had already been surpassed. He said that the number of transactions that morning had exceeded 105 million. He described the team’s mood as “very excited,” emphasizing that this number reflects the intensity of market demand for on-chain products.
He emphasized that the ecosystem was ready to welcome developers from day one, rather than building first and waiting for developers to arrive later—unlike many L2s that launch empty and gradually attract users over time.
Two: The "Barbell" Strategy—Why Meme and RWA Proceed in Parallel
The host mentioned an interesting observation: Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev described the on-chain ecosystem as a "barbell" structure on social media, with meme tokens at one end and real-world assets (RWA) at the other, saying, "You have two wolves inside you."
Kerbrat explained the internal thinking: the chain has been designed as permissionless from day one, open to all types of applications. Meme tokens have attracted market makers and DeFi users, while RWA serves users globally who face difficulties accessing U.S. stocks and ETFs. The two are not contradictory but instead attract different user groups.
He also mentioned several integrated products already live: Robinhood Earn, which earns stablecoin yields through on-chain protocols within the main app, and tokenized stocks, tradable via Robinhood Wallet in over 120 countries.
The host pressed further on how this differs from traditional financial products. Kerbrat highlighted issues with the traditional system: wire transfers can only be processed between 9:30 AM and 4:00 PM, commission-free brokers operate only during market hours on weekdays, and options and futures contracts expire. The on-chain version is a superior solution from a product perspective.
III. How 27 Million Accounts Are Being Moved Onchain: The Convergence of DeFi and CeFi
Kerbrat highlighted a key figure: Robinhood has 27 million funded accounts. Most of these users have not engaged with DeFi, as DeFi remains complex and requires significant technical knowledge.
His solution is “the best of both worlds”: using DeFi’s underlying technology to deliver high yields, while leveraging Robinhood’s frontend to provide a simple UX/UI and robust security. Robinhood Earn is an example—users can earn on-chain returns directly within the main app, without needing to create a wallet or manage private keys.
He defined this trend as "the convergence of CeFi and DeFi": centralized platforms leveraging blockchain technology to create better products while maintaining a user-friendly experience.
Regarding the technical implementation of tokenized stocks, Kerbrat revealed a "just-in-time tokenization" mechanism. Unlike traditional DEX listings, which require pre-built liquidity pools, Robinhood—being a broker-dealer that already holds these stocks—can rapidly bring them on-chain when users wish to trade. The underlying system combines prop AMM, standard AMM, RFQ, and classic pools to ensure competitive pricing at all times.
There are currently over 90 stock tokens on the chain, but he believes this is just the beginning, with plans to expand to international stocks, private markets, and other asset classes in the future.
Four: Why Choose Arbitrum: The Logic Behind Not Building Your Own L1
The host asked a technical architecture question: Why use Arbitrum's tech stack instead of building a chain from scratch?
Kerbrat’s response is pragmatic. Robinhood wants to focus on what it does best: delivering an excellent UX/UI and building strong financial products, rather than rebuilding something that already exists. Achieving Ethereum-level security and decentralization requires significant time and numerous decisions—from the transition from PoW to PoS to coordination among multiple foundations. Leveraging Ethereum’s existing security and the liquidity of its EVM ecosystem is a more sensible choice.
The reasons for choosing Arbitrum as the L2 tech stack include Stylus (which allows smart contracts to be written in any programming language), extremely fast block times (critical for financial products), and low gas fees (which remain low even during periods of high transaction volume). He also mentioned that during last week’s surge in on-chain activity, they proactively lowered gas fees to ensure an uninterrupted user experience.
Regarding the controversy over Ethereum’s “rent” (where Robinhood Chain earned over $1 million in revenue but paid only 1-2% back to Ethereum), Kerbrat argues that this is simply the default mechanism design and not a matter of fairness. His perspective is long-term: if Robinhood can bring tens of millions of users on-chain with genuine usage scenarios, this will ultimately become a long-term revenue source for the Ethereum ecosystem.
Five: Competition with Base—Growing the Pie Rather Than Fighting for Market Share
The host mentioned an "artificial competition" between Robinhood Chain and Coinbase Base on social media. Base recently acknowledged the failure of its social experiment and shifted direction, while Robinhood is also exploring the possibility of on-chain social trading.
Kerbrat’s attitude toward competition is clear: competition benefits customers. When Robinhood launched crypto trading, it drastically cut fees, and ultimately, users were the ones who benefited. But it’s still too early to discuss market share—Robinhood Chain is only three weeks old, while Base has already been running for one to two years.
He cited a statistic: currently, only a tiny fraction of the global population holds tokenized assets. His goal is to grow the pie so that more people worldwide can own assets, rather than competing for a share of the existing small pie. Regarding Base’s social experiment, he remarked, “It’s normal to try new things—sometimes they fail, and sometimes they succeed.”
Robinhood focuses on financial products: Earn, spot trading, and perpetual contracts—areas where they excel and can deliver value.
Six: Selection Criteria for DeFi Partners
The host listed the partners announced at the launch of Robinhood Chain: Morpho (lending vaults), Lighter (perpetual contracts), 0x (aggregation and quote API), Chainlink (oracles), and LayerZero (cross-chain).
Kerbrat outlined three criteria for selecting partners. First, Robinhood is a publicly traded company with licenses held globally, so partners must understand and comply with regulatory requirements. Second, partners must enable a unique user experience—for example, in collaboration with Morpho, it goes far beyond simply integrating an API; it requires customized fixed interest rates, insurance mechanisms, and a dedicated UX, demanding extensive deep-dive discussions and joint development. Third, partners must help differentiate us from competitors.
Regarding the timeline for perpetual contracts (perps) to launch on the main U.S. app, Kerbrat said they are still awaiting regulatory clarity, and even if the CLARITY Act passes, perpetual contracts remain a significant challenge. Currently, users can experience perpetual contract trading through the partnership between Robinhood Wallet and Lighter. He also revealed that Bitstamp—the European exchange acquired by Robinhood—is already expanding its perpetual contracts from crypto to include commodities and ETF contracts.
Seven: From Brokerage to Super App: The Investment Thesis for $HOOD
The final topic returned to an investment perspective. The host asked: What does it mean to hold $HOOD stock now?
Kerbrat outlined Robinhood’s vision for a "super app" encompassing stocks, options, futures, prediction markets, cryptocurrency, credit cards (with the Platinum Card just launched today), banking services, and AI-powered trading agents (with MCP already available). The core goal is to create a single app that fulfills all of a user’s financial needs across every stage of life.
He specifically highlighted the lack of financial education: young people aren’t taught financial literacy in school, yet they need to start thinking about retirement planning right after high school graduation. Robinhood aims to address financial education, with IRA accounts being one example.
From a business model perspective, all current business lines now generate nine-figure (hundreds of millions of dollars) revenues, with diversified income streams—no longer just a pure trading platform. Regarding revenue from the chain itself, Kerbrat openly states that adoption is currently prioritized over pure revenue. Gas fees are set through a balancing act: too low invites abuse from spam transactions and bots; too high hinders adoption. The platform is currently in a phase of optimizing for adoption, not revenue.