Robinhood

In 2013, Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt co-founded Robinhood. The two had previously built trading software for financial institutions, then shifted their startup toward individual investors, focusing the product on the mobile experience and lower barriers to trading.⁠[1][2]

On December 11, 2014, Robinhood launched an early iOS app.⁠[3]

On March 12, 2015, Robinhood removed its waitlist and expanded access to the public.⁠[4][5]

On February 22, 2018, the company announced that it would gradually open Bitcoin and Ether trading in certain U.S. states, starting with California, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, and New Hampshire. Crypto trading is provided by a dedicated business entity, separate from the securities brokerage and clearing businesses.⁠[6][7]

Robinhood announced that Dan Gallagher would become chief legal officer, responsible for global legal affairs, including corporate, regulatory, and product legal work, and would join the executive team. The announcement provided for a handover with outgoing Anne Hoge over the following weeks and said the company would add independent directors.⁠[8]

On December 17, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that Robinhood Financial had agreed to pay $65 million to settle charges concerning its disclosure of payment for order flow revenue and its failure to meet its best execution obligations. The SEC said the disclosure issues occurred from 2015 through late 2018 and that, for some customers, inferior execution prices outweighed the savings from not paying commissions. The company settled without admitting or denying the findings and agreed to retain an independent compliance consultant.⁠[9]

On January 28, 2021, amid extreme volatility in securities such as GameStop, Robinhood restricted new purchases of certain securities, while existing holders could still sell. In written congressional testimony on February 18 of that year, Tenev said the restrictions were imposed to meet clearinghouses’ increased deposit requirements and denied acting at the request of hedge funds. He also disclosed that the company subsequently obtained $3.4 billion in funding commitments in about four days.⁠[10]

On June 30, 2021, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fined Robinhood Financial $57 million and ordered it to pay approximately $12.6 million plus interest in restitution to harmed customers. The issues involved misleading customer communications, system outages in March 2020, and improper approval of customers for options trading. The amounts in the case consist of both the fine and customer restitution; the company accepted the settlement without admitting or denying the charges.⁠[11]

On July 28, 2021, Robinhood priced its initial public offering at $38 per share for 55 million shares of Class A common stock, including shares issued by the company and shares sold by existing stockholders. On July 29, the company’s stock began trading on Nasdaq under the symbol HOOD.⁠[7][5]

On August 2, 2022, the company announced it would cut approximately 23% of its staff, after laying off approximately 9% in April of that year. Tenev said the company had expanded headcount on the assumption that pandemic-era retail trading activity would continue, leaving it overstaffed in the new market environment; he acknowledged that he had approved the hiring plan and took responsibility.⁠[12]

On December 6, 2022, the company unveiled Robinhood Retirement, opening an early-access waitlist and planning to roll out the service in stages. The product includes traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs, offered a 1% match on eligible contributions at launch, and targets individuals including those without employer retirement plans. Match eligibility and holding conditions are governed by the product terms.⁠[13]

On March 19, 2024, Robinhood announced that its UK service was open to all eligible applicants, after it had begun accepting waitlist sign-ups in late 2023. At launch, it mainly offered trading in U.S.-listed securities and added web support. UK customers access the services through a local business entity.⁠[14]

Robinhood disclosed that its crypto business, Robinhood Crypto, had received a Wells notice from SEC staff stating that the staff intended to recommend that the Commission bring an enforcement action. Gallagher said the company had previously sought regulatory clarity and attempted to register, and was disappointed to receive the notice; he maintained that the assets listed on the platform are not securities and said the company would continue to engage with the SEC. This is the company’s legal position, and the notice itself is not a finding of a violation. The company also stated that it did not at the time offer certain tokens that the SEC had described as securities in other cases, or lending and staking products.⁠[15]

On January 13, 2025, the SEC announced that Robinhood Securities and Robinhood Financial had agreed to pay $33.5 million and $11.5 million, respectively, for a combined $45 million. The case involved obligations including suspicious activity reporting, identity theft protection, cybersecurity, recordkeeping, and trade data reporting. The two companies admitted certain facts of the violations; this was not a settlement in which all charges were neither admitted nor denied. The responsible parties were the two broker-dealers.⁠[16]

Robinhood announced on February 24, 2025, that the SEC’s Division of Enforcement had sent a letter to Robinhood Crypto on February 21 stating that the investigation had concluded and that it did not intend to pursue enforcement action. Gallagher welcomed the decision not to take action and reiterated the company’s position that the investigation should never have been opened and that the company complies with federal securities laws. The outcome described in the announcement is limited to that investigation and does not constitute blanket approval of all of Robinhood’s businesses or future products.⁠[17]

On March 7, 2025, FINRA announced fines totaling $26 million against Robinhood Financial and Robinhood Securities and ordered the former to pay $3.75 million in restitution to customers. The issues included anti-money laundering supervision, customer identity verification, clearing systems, and trade information disclosures to customers. FINRA also noted that the clearing system failed to process trades in a timely manner in January 2021; the two companies accepted the action without admitting or denying the findings and undertook remediation obligations.⁠[18]

On June 2, 2025, Robinhood completed its acquisition of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. The transaction gave the company a customer and operational base in Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Asia, and brought in its first institutional crypto business, including trading interfaces and related services for institutions. The date here is the date the acquisition closed.⁠[19]

On June 1, 2026, the company announced that it had completed its acquisition of WonderFi, entering the Canadian market through platforms including Bitbuy and Coinsquare. The company disclosed that the transaction added approximately 300,000 funded customers, bringing its total international funded customers to more than 1 million; these figures reflect the time of the closing announcement.⁠[20]

On June 16, 2026, the company disclosed in a Form 8-K that it would reduce its full-time workforce by approximately 10% and eliminate a small number of open positions. The company described the measures as improving efficiency, accelerating product delivery, and keeping the organization lean, and expected to incur approximately $20 million in severance and benefits costs and approximately $8 million in share-based compensation-related charges; these amounts were estimates at the time of the announcement.⁠[21]

On July 1, 2026, Robinhood announced the launch of the Robinhood Chain public mainnet, built on Arbitrum technology, and made a new generation of Stock Tokens available to eligible wallet users in certain jurisdictions. The new tokens are issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited and are tokenized debt securities that provide economic exposure to the underlying securities, without conferring legal or beneficial ownership of the underlying shares. Classic Stock Tokens in the European app are derivative contracts entered into with Robinhood Europe; neither type of product is equivalent to holding shares directly.⁠[22]

Results released on July 29, 2026, showed net revenues of $1.31 billion for the second quarter ended June 30, up 32% year over year, and net income of $573 million, including a $129 million gain primarily related to the deconsolidation of Robinhood Ventures Fund I. At the end of the quarter, funded customers totaled 28.4 million, Gold subscribers 4.8 million, and total platform assets $369 billion. The platform assets metric reflects the scale of customer assets and should not be regarded as the company’s own assets.⁠[23]

AMC chief executive officer Adam Aron posted on X questioning how the AMC stock tokens offered by Robinhood relate to genuine shareholder rights, the company’s equity financing, and securities law regulation; he demanded that Robinhood voluntarily stop the related trading and said he had asked securities lawyers to look into possible measures. Gallagher then quote-posted it in response, saying he knew U.S. securities law, would not stop, and asked that lawyers be sent to talk. His response addressed this AMC stock token dispute; it was not a commitment never to stop offering any product, nor a conclusion by the SEC or a court on the legality of the product.⁠[24][25]

Adam Aron then publicly criticized Vlad Tenev’s and Gallagher’s defense of stock tokens, calling the practice “abhorrent.” The tokens are issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited, cannot be bought by U.S. persons and carry no voting rights. Aron also asked whether the shares backing AMC stock tokens are still there once some are lent to short sellers; the question is not evidence that Robinhood lends such shares or lacks reserves.⁠[26]

As of September 20, 2026, Robinhood’s Jersey Stock Tokens product page disclosed that these tokens are not offered in the United States or to U.S. persons and are also subject to restrictions in other jurisdictions. The platform said each outstanding token is backed one-to-one by the corresponding underlying share, with the shares held by a U.S. custody partner and the backing assets monitored daily; this is a mechanism disclosed by the issuer and does not mean that this entry has conducted an independent reserve audit. When the underlying company pays dividends, the product reflects them by reinvesting and increasing the token multiplier rather than paying cash dividends directly. Holders can sell on the secondary market; when no authorized participant is available, they may also apply directly to the issuer for redemption after completing the issuer’s identity and anti-money laundering checks. In the event of the issuer’s insolvency, the product page says an independent security agent will sell the underlying shares and distribute the cash proceeds to holders. These arrangements do not give holders legal or beneficial rights against the issuers of the underlying shares.⁠[27]

Robinhood Markets is the group’s parent company; U.S. securities brokerage and clearing involve Robinhood Financial and Robinhood Securities, respectively, and crypto trading involves entities such as Robinhood Crypto. Revenue includes transaction-based revenues, net interest revenues, and other revenues such as subscriptions. In the second quarter of 2026, these three categories were approximately $776 million, $389 million, and $143 million, respectively; securities, options, crypto trading, and event contracts are distinct business categories.⁠[7][23]

The official website is https://robinhood.com/ (opens in a new window), and the investor relations website is https://investors.robinhood.com/ (opens in a new window). Products, operating entities, and applicable terms differ by country and region; the services actually available should be determined from the product pages and formal disclosures for the relevant region.⁠[1][14][22]