Interview with Robinhood Executives: Meme + Tokenized US Stocks as a "Barbell" Customer Acquisition Strategy, All Business Lines Achieve Billion-Dollar Revenue

Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Guest: Johann Kerbrat, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Crypto and International Business at Robinhood

Podcast Source: TheRollup

Original Title: Johann Kerbrat: Inside Robinhood's Crypto Strategy (Full Explanation)

Broadcast Date: 2026-07-24

Conflict of Interest Statement

Johann Kerbrat is an executive at Robinhood, responsible for all product lines in the crypto business (including Robinhood Chain, tokenized stocks, staking services, and perpetual contracts), with his compensation and equity incentives directly linked to the $HOOD stock price. All discussions regarding Robinhood Chain in this episode pertain to the business he directly oversees. The title uses "insider perspective" rather than "analysis" to reflect this conflict of interest.

Summary

Three weeks after the launch of the Robinhood Chain mainnet, weekly DEX trading volume surpassed $3 billion, with over 105 million transactions and a TVL exceeding $300 million. Johann Kerbrat elaborated on the strategic logic of the chain for the first time in the podcast: why the "barbell" layout (meme tokens + real-world assets in parallel) was chosen, why the Arbitrum tech stack was used instead of building a self-owned L1, and how Robinhood's 27 million funded accounts are gradually being moved onto the chain. He clearly stated that the competitive focus is on "growing the pie" rather than competing for market share with Base and revealed that tokenized stocks have already covered over 120 countries and 90 assets, with plans to expand into international stocks and private markets in the future.

Key Quotes

"Our philosophy is to make the chain permissionless and open to everything. Whether it's memes or RWAs, we welcome all 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. We are thinking about how to bring good DeFi products over while making them user-friendly, easy to use, without needing to create wallets or manage private keys."

"I believe competition ultimately benefits customers. When we launched crypto trading, we significantly cut fees. It’s still too early for the chain; discussing market share is premature."

"We have only been live for three weeks. If you consider bringing tens of millions of users onto the chain, providing more utility, and offering things that people actually use (not just temporary volatility), then you are thinking about a long-term revenue source."

"We don’t want to see all of Robinhood’s trading activity move to the chain next year. That would be a bit of a dream. But if we can find things that traditional methods cannot achieve, like international stocks and 24/7 trading, the chain can become the solution."

I. Three Weeks of Data: $3 Billion Weekly Trading Volume is Just the Beginning

The host opened with a set of numbers: after the launch of the Robinhood Chain mainnet, weekly DEX trading volume reached $3 billion, with over 50 million transactions, more than 1 million addresses, and a TVL exceeding $300 million.

Kerbrat's response was direct: these numbers have already been surpassed. He mentioned that by that morning, the number of transactions had exceeded 105 million. He described the team's state as "very excited," emphasizing that this figure reflects the market's strong demand for on-chain products.

He particularly highlighted that the ecosystem was prepared from the beginning to accommodate developers, rather than building it first and waiting for people to come. This differs from many L2s that initially run empty before gradually attracting users.

II. "Barbell" Strategy: Why Meme and RWA Run in Parallel

The host pointed out an interesting phenomenon: Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev described the on-chain ecosystem as a "barbell" structure, with one end being meme tokens and the other end being real-world assets (RWA), stating, "You have two wolves inside you."

Kerbrat explained the internal thinking. The chain has been defined as permissionless from day one, open to all types of applications. Meme tokens attract market makers and DeFi users, while RWAs serve users globally who cannot easily purchase US stocks and ETFs. The two are not contradictory; rather, they each attract different groups.

He also mentioned several integrated products that have already launched: Robinhood Earn (earning stablecoin yields through on-chain protocols within the main app) and tokenized stocks (tradable in over 120 countries via Robinhood Wallet).

The host pressed on the differences from traditional financial products. Kerbrat listed the issues with the traditional system: wire transfers can only be executed between 9:30 AM and 4:00 PM, commission-free brokers only operate 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 to Move 27 Million Accounts onto the Chain: The Fusion of DeFi and CeFi

Kerbrat threw out a key number: Robinhood has 27 million funded accounts. Most of these users have not been exposed to DeFi, as it remains complex and requires substantial technical knowledge.

His solution is a "win-win": using DeFi's underlying technology to provide high yields while offering a simple UX/UI and security through Robinhood's front end. Robinhood Earn is an example, allowing users to earn on-chain yields within the main app without needing to create wallets or manage private keys.

He defined this trend as the "fusion 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 the "just-in-time tokenization" mechanism. Traditional DEXs require liquidity pools to be built in advance, while Robinhood, being a broker itself and holding these stocks, can quickly bring stocks onto the chain when users need to trade. The underlying technology uses a combination of prop AMM, standard AMM, RFQ, and classic pools to ensure good prices at all times.

Currently, there are over 90 tokenized stocks on the chain, but he believes this is just the beginning, with plans to expand into international stocks, private markets, and more asset classes in the future.

IV. Why Choose Arbitrum: The Logic of Not Building an L1

The host asked a technical architecture question: why use Arbitrum's tech stack instead of building a chain from scratch.

Kerbrat's answer was pragmatic. Robinhood wants to focus on what it does best: creating great UX/UI and financial products, rather than rebuilding something that already exists. Achieving Ethereum-level security and decentralization takes a long time and involves many decisions (from PoW to PoS migration, collaboration among multiple foundations). Directly using Ethereum's security and the liquidity of the EVM ecosystem is a more reasonable choice.

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 (financial products require high speed), and low gas fees (even during periods of high trading volume). He also mentioned that last week, when on-chain activity surged, they proactively lowered gas fees to ensure user experience was not affected.

Regarding the Ethereum "rent" controversy (Robinhood Chain earned over $1 million in revenue but only paid 1-2% to Ethereum), Kerbrat believes this is a default mechanism of Ethereum's settings and does not concern fairness. His perspective is long-term: if Robinhood can bring tens of millions of users onto the chain and create real use cases, this will ultimately become a long-term revenue source for the Ethereum ecosystem.

V. Competition with Base: Growing the Pie Rather Than Competing for Market Share

The host mentioned the "artificial competition" between Robinhood Chain and Coinbase Base on social media. Base recently admitted to a failed social experiment and is shifting directions, while Robinhood is also exploring the possibility of social trading on-chain.

Kerbrat's attitude towards competition is clear: competition benefits customers. When Robinhood launched crypto trading, they directly slashed fees, ultimately benefiting users. But discussing market share is too early now; Robinhood Chain has only been live for three weeks, while Base has been running for one to two years.

He made a comparison with a number: currently, only a tiny percentage of the global population holds tokenized assets. His goal is to grow the pie, allowing more people worldwide to own assets, rather than competing for shares of the existing small pie. Regarding Base's social experiment, he commented, "It's normal to try new things; sometimes it fails, sometimes it succeeds."

Robinhood focuses on financial products: Earn, spot trading, and perpetual contracts. These are the areas they excel in and can bring value.

VI. The Logic Behind Choosing DeFi Partners

The host listed the partners announced at the launch of Robinhood Chain: Morpho (lending vault), Lighter (perpetual contracts), 0x (aggregation and quoting API), Chainlink (oracles), LayerZero (cross-chain).

Kerbrat explained the three criteria for selecting partners. First, Robinhood is a publicly traded company with multiple licenses globally, and partners must understand and comply with regulatory requirements. Second, they need to create a unique experience. For example, when collaborating with Morpho, it goes far beyond simply integrating an API; it requires customized stable rates, insurance mechanisms, and exclusive UX, which involves a lot of time in-depth discussions and joint development. Third, they need to differentiate from competitors.

Regarding the timeline for perpetual contracts to enter the main Robinhood app in the US, Kerbrat stated they are still waiting for regulatory clarity. Even if the CLARITY Act passes, perpetual contracts remain a significant issue. Currently, through the collaboration with Robinhood Wallet and Lighter, users can experience perpetual contract trading. He also revealed that Bitstamp (the European exchange acquired by Robinhood) is already expanding perpetual contracts from crypto to commodities and ETF contracts.

VII. From Brokerage to Super App: The Investment Logic of $HOOD

The final topic returned to the investment perspective. The host asked: what does holding $HOOD stock mean now?

Kerbrat outlined Robinhood's "super app" landscape: stocks, options, futures, prediction markets, crypto, credit cards (just released a platinum card today), banking services, AI agent trading (MCP already available). The core is to create an app that meets all financial needs of users at different life stages.

He particularly mentioned the lack of financial education: young people do not learn financial knowledge in school, but by the time they graduate high school, they need to start considering retirement planning. Robinhood aims to focus on financial education, with IRA accounts being one example.

From a business model perspective, all business lines currently achieve nine-digit (hundred million) revenues, with diversified revenue sources, no longer just a pure trading platform. Regarding the revenue from the chain itself, Kerbrat candidly stated that they are currently prioritizing adoption rates over pure revenue. The setting of gas fees is a balancing act: too low will be abused by spam transactions and bots, while too high will hinder adoption. They are currently in a phase of "optimizing for adoption" rather than "optimizing for revenue."

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