Robinhood: Over 150,000 Users Enable AI Trading Accounts; CEO Envisions Retail Strategies Near Exchanges

Huoxing Finance reports that Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood, the stock and crypto trading platform, stated in a recent interview that a significant portion of retail trading in the future is expected to be initiated by AI. Agents can monitor markets 24/7 and execute trades across various assets, including stocks, options, and cryptocurrencies, though most funds are likely to remain held long-term. In May, Robinhood enabled users to access third-party AI agents via MCP for trading, and by late September, it announced direct integration of agents into its app, with over 150,000 customers having already activated dedicated trading accounts. Currently, funds are restricted to separate accounts; agents can view information from users’ other accounts but can only place orders within the dedicated account, requiring users to manually transfer funds. Tenev noted that technically, direct integration with the main account is not difficult, but the company has chosen to gradually expand permissions. For approval settings, the built-in agent defaults to requiring user approval for each trade—a setting that can be manually disabled—while external agents accessed via MCP default to not requiring per-trade approval, with users needing to enable it themselves. Tenev also envisions allowing retail investors to deploy their trading strategies on servers located near exchanges to reduce order latency, and hopes that ordinary investors can use such infrastructure without needing to understand data centers or network engineering. Robinhood currently does not offer this service and has not announced a timeline for its launch.