Compiled & Organized 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 of the crypto business (including Robinhood Chain, tokenized stocks, staking services, perpetual contracts), and his compensation and equity incentives are directly tied to the $HOOD stock price. All discussions about Robinhood Chain in this episode pertain to the business he directly oversees. The title uses “insider perspective” instead of “analysis” to reflect this conflict of interest.

Summary

Three weeks after the launch of the Robinhood Chain mainnet, weekly DEX trading volume exceeded $3 billion, with over 105 million transactions and a TVL of over $300 million. Johann Kerbrat detailed the strategic logic of the chain for the first time on the podcast: why they chose a “barbell” layout (meme tokens + real-world assets in parallel), why they used the Arbitrum tech stack instead of building their own L1, and how they plan to gradually migrate Robinhood's 27 million deposit accounts 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 meme tokens or RWAs, we welcome a wide variety of products. We are integrating deeply with the chain.”

“Robinhood has 27 million deposit 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 and accessible, without the need to create wallets or manage private keys.”

“I believe competition ultimately benefits customers. When we launched crypto trading at Robinhood, we cut fees significantly. It's still too early in the chain space to discuss market share.”

“We've only been live for three weeks. If you are considering bringing tens of millions of users onto the chain to provide more utility and real products that people truly use (not just temporary fluctuations), then you are thinking about a long-term revenue source.”

“We do not want to see all of Robinhood's trading activities shifting to the chain next year. That would be a bit of a dream. But if we can find things that traditional methods cannot achieve, such as international stocks and 24/7 trading, then the chain can become the solution.”

1. Three Weeks of Launch Data: $3 Billion Weekly Trading Volume is Just the Starting Point

The host opened with some numbers: after the launch of the Robinhood Chain mainnet, the 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 straightforward: these figures have already been surpassed. He said that as of that morning, the number of transactions had exceeded 105 million. He described the team's state as "very excited," and the core point is that this number reflects the intensity of market demand for on-chain products.

He emphasized that the ecosystem was ready to accommodate developers from day one, rather than waiting for them to come after building everything first. This is different from the approach many L2s take by launching empty and then slowly attracting traffic.

2. “Barbell” Strategy: Why Meme and RWA Operate in Parallel

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), stating “there are two wolves inside you.”

Kerbrat explained the internal rationale. The chain was positioned from day one as permissionless, open to all types of applications. Meme tokens attract market makers and DeFi users, while RWAs serve users globally who are unable to easily purchase US stocks and ETFs. The two are not contradictory but attract different groups.

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

The host pressed on the differences from traditional financial products. Kerbrat listed issues with the traditional system: wire transfers can only be made between 9:30 and 4:00, commission-free brokers only operate during weekdays, and options and futures contracts can expire. The on-chain versions are a superior solution from a product perspective.

3. How to Migrate 27 Million Accounts to the Chain: The Fusion of DeFi and CeFi

Kerbrat shared a key figure: Robinhood has 27 million deposit accounts. Most of these users have not been exposed to DeFi, as DeFi is still complex and requires a lot of technical knowledge.

His solution is “the best of both worlds”: using DeFi's underlying technology to provide high yields while using Robinhood's front end to offer a simple UX/UI and security protection. Robinhood Earn is an example, allowing users to earn on-chain returns 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 leverage 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, already being a broker and holding these stocks, can quickly bring stocks onto the chain when users need to trade. The underlying model 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-chain, but he believes this is just the beginning, with plans to expand into international stocks and private markets among other asset classes.

4. Why Choose Arbitrum: The Logic Behind 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 very pragmatic. Robinhood wants to focus on what it does best: providing excellent 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 moving from PoW to PoS, to collaborating with multiple foundations). Directly leveraging Ethereum's security and the liquidity of the EVM ecosystem is the more reasonable choice.

Reasons for selecting Arbitrum as the L2 tech stack include: Stylus (which allows smart contracts to be written in any programming language), extremely fast block speeds (financial products require high velocity), and low gas fees (keeping fees low even during periods of high trading volume). He also mentioned that when chain activity surged last week, they proactively lowered gas fees to ensure user experience was not affected.

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

5. 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 their social experiment failed and is moving in another direction, while Robinhood is exploring the possibility of social trading on-chain.

Kerbrat's attitude toward competition is clear: competition benefits customers. When Robinhood launched crypto trading, they slashed fees significantly, benefiting users in the end. However, it's too early to discuss market share; Robinhood Chain has only been live for three weeks, while Base has been operating for one or two years.

He made a comparison with a statistic: currently, only a very small percentage of the global population holds tokenized assets. His goal is to grow the pie so that more people around the world can own assets, rather than competing for share in the existing small plate. About 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, perpetual contracts. These are areas where they excel and can bring value.

6. 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 pricing API), Chainlink (oracles), LayerZero (cross-chain).

Kerbrat explained the three criteria for selecting partners. First, Robinhood is a public company with multiple licenses globally; partners must understand compliance requirements and cooperate. Second, they must be able to create unique experiences. For example, when collaborating with Morpho, it goes far beyond simply integrating an API; customized stable rates, insurance mechanisms, and dedicated UX require extensive discussions and joint development. Third, they must create differentiation from competitors.

Regarding the timeline for perpetual contracts entering the main Robinhood app, Kerbrat stated they are still waiting for regulatory clarity; even if the CLARITY Act is passed, perpetual contracts present another major challenge. Currently, users can experience perpetual contract trading through Robinhood Wallet in cooperation with Lighter. He also revealed that Bitstamp (the European exchange acquired by Robinhood) is already expanding perpetual contracts from crypto to commodities and ETFs.

7. From Broker 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 painted a picture of Robinhood's “super app” landscape: stocks, options, futures, prediction markets, crypto, credit cards (they just launched a platinum card today), banking services, AI agent trading (MCP is already available). The core is to create an app that meets all of the user's financial needs throughout 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, currently, each business line has achieved nine-digit (hundreds of millions) revenue, with diversified sources of revenue, no longer just a pure trading platform. Regarding the revenue from the chain itself, Kerbrat candidly admitted that they prioritize adoption over pure revenue at this stage. The setting of gas fees is a balancing act: if it's too low, it will be abused by junk transactions and bots; if it’s too high, it will hinder adoption. They are currently in a phase of “optimizing for adoption” rather than “optimizing for revenue.”

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