Robinhood Chain Growth

0:00As a top-performing advisor, you demand top-performing funds. That's why Fidelity's 1 ,000 experienced research professionals combine deep insights and advanced analytics to deliver consistent outcomes for clients across market cycles. Explore 300-plus Morningstar-rated 4 - and 5-star funds at i.fidelity.com slash top funds. Across all fund share classes of Fidelity, Fidelity Advisor Shares, and Fidelity ETFs as of 6-15-2026, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Support for the show comes from public.com. If you're actively involved in your portfolio, you probably catch yourself repeating the same actions.

0:37Buying the dip, manually sweeping idle cash, putting on a hedge. On public, you can now create AI agents that handle all these tasks on your behalf. Just describe what you want to do in plain English. Like, if the VIX hits 25, buy a put option on the S &P 500. Or, if my cash balance goes above$20 ,000, move the excess into my direct index. You approve the workflow and your agent handles the risk. Monitoring the market, watching for your conditions, and executing your strategies exactly as defined. An investing platform driven by your intent, not just your clicks. You can also get full read and write access to your account via the public API.

1:17Go to public.com slash market and fund your account in five minutes or less. That's public.com slash market. Paid for by Public Investing. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing, Inc., Member FINRA, and SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors, LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts. I, um, I can't stop scratching my downtown. Yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. some things you'd rather type than say out loud. There's no question too embarrassing for Amazon Health AI.

2:02Chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24-7. Healthcare just got less painful.

2:11Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio. An interesting take from analysts at Bernstein and Piper Sandler this week. They argue that Robinhood's revenue from prediction markets is set to overshadow that from cryptocurrency trading starting as soon as the second quarter. Yeah, that's pretty significant. I mean, we're talking so much more about, you think about it, prediction markets, the establishment, financial firms increasingly looked at it. It's something we actually talked about with the CEO of Charles Schwab yesterday, Rick Worcester.

2:48Yeah, Joanne Kerbrot is here with us now. Now he's Senior Vice President and General Manager of Crypto over at Robinhood. He also runs the international business as well. He joins us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio. Welcome, welcome. How are you? Good, good. How have you been? Yeah, we've been good. It's good to have you back here in New York. Welcome back. We've got this decline in crypto trading, and I think many people would argue it's related to the price action that we've seen since October. But at the same time, a catalyst in prediction markets with the World Cup. I'm just wondering how you're thinking about this universe of these two different elements of trading and how that affects your users.

3:24Like, are they doing less on crypto and more with prediction markets? We haven't seen that in our data when we look at our customer engagement on the platform. We do have contracts on the prediction market platform that are related to crypto index price and crypto actions. But overall, I think it's just one of the cycle where we see a bit the sentiment in crypto a little down. and overall we are just focusing on building new tools and new features that people can utilize when the sentiment goes up. So when the sentiment goes up not if the sentiment goes up like you're confident it will go up. You know we've seen all these different cycles a lot and I think this is not our first time not our first radio and I think the sentiment will come back.

4:06We saw it with the launch of our revenue chain July 1st. We've seen very good metrics already 105 million transaction on the platform. So explain what the impetus behind that was and why you guys launched that now. Yeah, we really wanted to create an infrastructure and a backbone for creating new products that bring the value of DeFi and blockchain technology to our traditional finance systems. And so one of the first products that we launched with this chain is called Robin Earn, that gives you approximately 7 % on the dollar that you're lending to the protocol. And I think it's really giving you the best of two worlds, the high yield that you can get from DeFi and also the simple UX and UI that you can get from a platform like Robinhood.

4:51What do you guys really want to be? Prediction markets, crypto, you've got a platinum card, like there's a lot of stuff. And I think some, our critics might say, wait, you just kind of are chasing what seems to be popular. So what is it that you really want to be? I think for us, the main goal has been to be this all-in-one platform for all your financial needs. And for that, you need to cater to customers at different stages of their life, from the very young people that are starting to think about retirement, opening their first retirement account on Robinhood, like an IRA, to the more advanced customers that want to use authentic trading or AI tools.

5:26And also, at the same time, banking rails and credit cards are still something that you need on a day-to-day basis. But why not go to the establishment? Like to say, like we talked to the folk, you know, Rick Worcester over at Charles Schwab, but why not go to the establishment who are also embracing kind of the new innovation, if you will, in finance? Yeah, we absolutely are as well. If you see our market share and the growth of our business, it shows that we've been able to grab some of these customers from these more established businesses. But I think for us, it's been important to have a wide array of features and functionalities.

6:01If you think about our credit card, we launched a gold credit card. We have more than a million customers now with this credit card. It really shows that there are a lot of things that we are used to on the financial side that we can disrupt. And Robinhood, by launching the gold card with 3 % cash back on almost everything, really changed the way that people were utilizing credit cards in the business. You know, on the crypto side of things, on our crypto show yesterday, we spoke to Nathan Dean of Bloomberg Intelligence. He said he actually agreed with Treasury Secretary Scott Besson. who said that we're at the one-yard line with the Clarity Act in the Senate.

6:38If that passes this year, what does it mean for your business? I think it really changed the way that we can launch product in the U.S. Right now, we have a very fragmented situation where some states will have access to some features and not. And it's something that really frustrates our customers. So we want to be able to launch products across the entire U.S. the same way that we are doing that in other regions in the world, like EU, for example. The second thing is a lot of institutions want to get into crypto. They understand that there is a value using stablecoin or tokenized asset, but they don't want to do it for the short term.

7:11If they don't have clear regulation, they are not going to be able to launch a project that will take five or six years to build. So it's really important to get this clarity, which the name of the act is very apropos, because we can, after this bill, really have a lot of institutions, companies like ours, invest in a long time for blockchain technologies. What's, you know, how do you think about, John, politics and midterm elections and changes in the administration? This is certainly an administration that has been much more embracing, if you will, of digital assets. But I'm just curious how you guys factored in and think about it in terms of strategy or what you might need to get done or think about before the midterms or how you're thinking about it afterwards?

7:59Well, if you think about Robinhood, it exists since 2013, right? And so we have seen very different administration across the existence of the company and we are used to work with different administration. Hopefully, I think this time, when you see the entire world actually embracing crypto regulation, you think about Mika in the EU, you think about the FCA in the UK creating a new framework, we really saw a situation with the previous administration where the US were falling behind and crypto companies wanted to actually build outside of the US. So I think it's important that no matter the direction of the next administration will be that we have comprehensive regulation to embrace the technology and make people build in America again.

8:44You oversee the international business as well And I'm just curious about the timeline or the pipeline that you have for products that we may not have in the U.S., but you can have overseas or have overseas, but not have here in the U.S. Like, what is the breakdown right now? Yeah, one of the main products we have overseas and not in the U.S. is crypto perpetuals or future perpetuals. It's a primitive that was invented by crypto technology. and we are seeing a lot of demand from our customers and you see platforms that are decentralized, seeing a lot of volume coming from - Like a hyperliquid, for example?

9:22Like a hyperliquid, for example. In the EU, we have it available for crypto contracts, but also for commodities and ETF contracts. And it's something that we see a lot of engagement with. Meaning you think that it would be something that could happen here in the US at some point? I think so. I think there are still some discussion happening at the CFTC level, but it sounds like it's something that we are looking to open in the U.S. at the regulatory level. And we have the technology ready to use. So the day that we have clear regulation, we'll be able to launch it. You know, one thing that we always try to get an understanding of is what people are doing on a specific platform, what they're doing in different parts of the world.

10:00We talked to a lot of folks who are managing money and about asset allocation. What about outside of the U.S., demand for U.S. stocks right now? What does that look like? It's still something that we are investing a lot. So we launch our tokenized assets. We call it stock tokens that give exposure to U.S. stocks and ETF. And in a lot of places, including in Europe, you still have platforms that still charge commission, for example. One of the biggest ones still charge at least one euro per transaction when you want to buy a stock. So giving access to this stock token has actually been a way for them to access it without paying commission fees.

10:37We launched actually a study with European customers and more than 50 % of them were interested by this type of product. And a lot of them were interested by the fact that you can trade them 24-7 as well. Because on the weekend, the war doesn't stop. And so the economy also has an impact. And also the fact that the time zone is very difficult, right? When the US market is open, it's often night for the EU. So I think that's a kind of evolution that we'll see from the blockchain technology that will bring Tradify into a new world, basically. What about things like the SpaceX IPO? And I'm just curious how that impacted or what kind of activity you guys saw around that.

11:13And then how you are thinking about the upcoming IPOs, whether it's OpenAI or Anthropic. Yeah, we have a platform called IPO Access where customers can actually place demand. And based on what allocation we get from the issuer, we're able to distribute it to our customers. SpaceX, obviously, was a large one. But it's a platform that we are seeing more and more demand on. Did you see a lot of demand with SpaceX on the internet? Yeah, it was definitely one of big demand because of the size of the IPO. One of your biggest days? I couldn't tell you the size exactly. But I think what's interesting is seeing more and more of the demand from a retail customer for early access to this company.

11:54A lot of these companies are waiting longer and longer before going public. and therefore the retail customer is not able to also get the same upside that they were when they were participating into the Google IPO, for example. What is the way to access that in an environment where it's traditionally been restricted to the so-called accredited investors which have specific barriers to net worth? That's probably one of the things that we need to change here in the US. If you think about other places like in the EU, you have an assessment test that you have to complete. So it will ask you a question, and only if you pass this question, you're able to access this type of product.

12:30Is it about net worth, or is it about… No, it's about your knowledge and understanding the risk of the product. And I think that's a very big difference, because no matter of your net worth, if you understand it, it should give you access, not necessarily just because you have a big bank account. John, we just have about 40, 50 seconds here. I mean, you talked about people wanting different things on the platform as they kind of get older, right, and different things that you guys are offering. What is the biggest demographic on the platform, or how is it changing? Yeah, our demographic is still skewed on the younger side, in the 35 to 40.

13:04But we also have new products. For example, we launched the Trump account, which allows you to create an account for your babies and your child. And I think that's something that is very important, because it's by starting to utilize this type of platform that you are able to start thinking about the future of your children. Are you seeing an uptick in that? Are you seeing activity around that? Yeah, absolutely. I don't have the exact number, but you will see that a lot of our customers were opening accounts for their children. And I think it's important. The children need to learn about this to start thinking about their future.

13:37Can you open an account for my children, Carol? I will do anything for your kids. Thank you. Absolutely. I appreciate that. By the way, Robin Hood reporting second quarter results on July 29th. Johan Kerbrot, Senior Vice President, General Manager of Crypto and International at Robinhood. This is Bloomberg.

13:55As industries evolve faster than ever, companies need an environment that accelerates strategic growth, and Michigan delivers on that promise. From emerging startups to global enterprises, Michigan offers what executives value most, a resilient, innovative ecosystem, diverse communities that attract top talent, and a quality of life that supports work-life balance. With our unified Team Michigan approach, businesses scale faster and compete at the highest level. Michigan, pure opportunity. Seize your opportunity at michiganbusiness.org. Wait, I came in for two things. How is this$47? All right, we're going to need a plan here.

14:33Just start simple with Bank of America Advantage Safe Balance Banking. No overdraft item fees, no monthly maintenance fee if you're under 25. Plus, as a new checking customer, you can earn$100 when you open an account and make qualifying Zelle or debit transactions. Oh, that's actually really simple. Safe balance banking. One less thing to figure out. Learn more at bfa.com slash earn100. Terms and conditions apply Bank of America and a member FDIC. And now, another appliance triumph from our friends at Grand Appliance. With three kids, I'm always cramming the washer full. So when we needed a new laundry set, I asked the experts at Grand Appliance for a big capacity washer with a dryer that could keep up.

15:11They recommended Electrolux and we love it. Advanced cleaning features with a massive dryer that gets everything dried the first time? Yes, please! Sounds like another perfect match from the Grand team. Shop GrandAppliance.com