Emre Yumlu 
A notable shift is taking place at the intersection of traditional finance and crypto. Robinhood is taking steps to tokenize equities and bring them onchain — a move that could pose a serious challenge to the revenue models of major exchanges like the NYSE.
Robinhood Chain: A Layer-2 Bringing Stocks Onchain
During this week’s EthCC conference, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev unveiled plans for a new blockchain project: Robinhood Chain, a Layer-2 network built on Arbitrum Orbit and compatible with Ethereum. The platform will allow users to trade tokenized derivatives of real-world stocks directly onchain.
According to Tenev, the new token infrastructure will give users the ability to self-custody these tokenized versions of their assets or use them within decentralized applications.
Initially, Robinhood Chain will support 24/5 trading, but the long-term vision is to move toward 24/7 availability. This bold initiative follows Robinhood’s recent acquisition of crypto exchange Bitstamp, signaling a deeper commitment to blockchain-based finance.
Galaxy Digital: Liquidity May Shift Away from Traditional Exchanges
In a report published on Friday, Galaxy Digital warned that Robinhood’s tokenization efforts could pull liquidity away from traditional financial pipelines and bring it onto the blockchain. This, they say, may directly impact the revenues of legacy platforms like the NYSE — particularly their income from trading fees and market data sales.
“This directly challenges the dense concentration of liquidity and trading activity that has long been a competitive advantage for traditional exchanges,” Galaxy stated.
Robinhood Chain’s design mirrors rollup architectures like Coinbase’s Base, allowing Robinhood to control the network’s sequencer and capture all transaction fees. According to Galaxy, Base currently generates more than $150,000 per day in sequencer revenue for Coinbase.
More Than 24/7 Access: Programmability Unlocks New Potential
The benefits of tokenization extend far beyond round-the-clock trading. Programmable assets can be used as collateral in DeFi protocols, or even support features like automated dividend distributions — capabilities that traditional equities simply can’t match.
Galaxy’s report highlights that if traditional exchanges fail to match these utilities, they risk becoming little more than “custodians of a less functional version of the same asset.” That could drive more users and liquidity to blockchain-native platforms.
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