Robinhood's crypto head recounts: The "barbell" customer acquisition strategy of Meme + tokenized US stocks has achieved over a hundred million in revenue across all business lines

Original Title: Johann Kerbrat: Inside Robinhood's Crypto Strategy (Full Explanation)
Original Source: TheRollup
Original Translation: ShenChao TechFlow

Conflict of Interest Statement

Johann Kerbrat is an executive at Robinhood, responsible for the entire product line of the crypto business (including Robinhood Chain, tokenized stocks, staking services, perpetual contracts), and his compensation and equity incentives are directly linked to the $HOOD stock price. All discussions regarding Robinhood Chain in this issue 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 TVL exceeding $300 million. Johann Kerbrat detailed the strategic logic of the chain for the first time in a podcast: why they chose a "barbell" layout (parallel meme tokens + real-world assets), why they used the Arbitrum tech stack instead of building their own L1, and how they plan to gradually move Robinhood's 27 million deposit accounts onto the chain. He made it clear 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 meme tokens or RWA, we welcome all products. We are deeply integrating with the chain."

"Robinhood has 27 million deposit accounts. For these users, DeFi is still too complex and requires too much technical knowledge. What we are thinking about is how to bring good DeFi products over while making them user-friendly and 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 on the chain to discuss market share."

"We've only been live for three weeks. If you're thinking about bringing tens of millions of users onto the chain, bringing more utility, and providing things that people will actually use (not just temporary fluctuations), then you're 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 can't achieve, like international stocks and 24/7 trading, then 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 TVL exceeding $300 million.

Kerbrat's response was straightforward: these figures 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," with the core point being that this number reflects the market's strong demand for on-chain products.

He emphasized that the ecosystem was prepared from the very beginning to accommodate developers, rather than building it first and waiting for people to come. This is different from the approach many L2s take, where they initially run empty and then gradually attract users.

II. "Barbell" Strategy: Why Meme and RWA Coexist

The host mentioned 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), saying "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 RWA serves users globally who cannot easily purchase U.S. stocks and ETFs. The two are not contradictory; rather, they each attract different groups.

He also mentioned several integrated products that are already live: 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 followed up by asking how this differs from traditional financial products. Kerbrat listed the problems with the traditional system: wire transfers can only be done between 9:30 and 4:00, commission-free brokers only operate during market hours on weekdays, and options and futures contracts can expire. The on-chain version is a better solution from a product perspective.

III. How to Move 27 Million Accounts to the Chain: The Fusion of DeFi and CeFi

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

His solution is "the best of both worlds": using DeFi's underlying technology to provide 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 directly 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 set up in advance, while Robinhood, being a broker 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 the Arbitrum tech stack instead of building their own chain.

Kerbrat's answer was pragmatic. Robinhood wants to focus on what it does best: providing good 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 the transition from PoW to PoS, to 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 have high speed requirements), and low gas fees (which can remain low even during high trading volume periods). He also mentioned that when on-chain activity surged last week, they actively lowered gas fees to ensure user experience was not affected.

Regarding the "rent" controversy with Ethereum (Robinhood Chain earned over $1 million in revenue but only paid 1-2% to Ethereum), Kerbrat believes this is a default mechanism setting of Ethereum and cannot be deemed fair or unfair. 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 Share

The host mentioned the "artificial competition" between Robinhood Chain and Coinbase Base on social media. Base recently admitted that its social experiment failed 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, it directly cut fees significantly, ultimately benefiting users. But it is too early to discuss market share; 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 in an existing small pie. Regarding Base's social experiment, he commented, "It's normal to try new things; sometimes it fails, and 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. 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, so partners must understand compliance requirements and cooperate. 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 deep discussions and joint development. Third, they need to differentiate from competitors.

Regarding the timeline for perpetual contracts to enter the main U.S. app, Kerbrat stated they are still waiting for regulatory clarity. Even if the CLARITY Act passes, perpetual contracts are another major 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 into perpetual contracts, moving 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 described Robinhood's "super app" landscape: stocks, options, futures, prediction markets, crypto, credit cards (just released a platinum card that day), banking services, AI agent trading (with MCP already available). The core is to create an app that meets all financial needs of users at different stages of life.

He particularly mentioned the lack of financial education: young people do not learn financial knowledge in school, yet they need to start considering retirement planning right after high school. Robinhood wants 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 can lead to abuse by spam transactions and bots, while too high can hinder adoption. They are currently in a phase of "optimizing for adoption" rather than "optimizing for revenue."