Robinhood - The starting point for young people to access the market

Today, let's talk about Robinhood

In just one year in 2025, Robinhood's stock price rose from less than $40 to a peak of $153, with a full-year increase of over 200%. Its market cap once exceeded $100 billion, and it was officially included in the S&P 500 index.

This company, once criticized as a "retail investor gathering place," has now entered the "inner circle" of the U.S. capital markets.

Robinhood, what exactly happened?

Part 1: How did Robinhood rise?

If you want to quickly understand Robinhood, I recommend a movie—"Dumb Money." It tells the story of the 2021 GameStop event, and Robinhood was one of the main platforms in that storm.

Robinhood's product philosophy has always been clear:

1️⃣ Mobile-first, not professional-first

From its founding in 2013 to 2025, Robinhood only had a mobile app. It wasn't that they couldn't develop professional tools, but they knew their core users were young people who participated in the market via mobile anytime, anywhere. It wasn't until 2025 that they launched a PC version, specifically for high-frequency and professional users.

2️⃣ Zero-commission trading, changing industry rules

Traditional brokers charged $5–10 per trade, which was extremely costly for small-scale users. Robinhood bypassed this through the Payment for Order Flow (PFOF) model: – Users felt "no fees" – The platform routed orders to market makers – Market makers profited from spreads and then subsidized the platform This mechanism is essentially very similar to MEV in the crypto market.

3️⃣ Minimalist + gamified investment experience

Robinhood's interface design was very restrained: one button could complete an operation—early versions didn't even have full K-line charts—emphasizing "low-barrier participation." During the pandemic, loose liquidity + subsidy funds + simplified operations brought many young users into the market for the first time.

Part 2: An Underestimated Fact

Many still see Robinhood as a "stock platform," but the reality is completely different.

According to Q4 2024 earnings: – Annual revenue of about $1 billion – Trading-related revenue accounted for 67% – Of which: Crypto-related trades ≈ over half Derivative trades ≈ one-third Traditional stock trades < 10%

Robinhood is now a financial platform centered on digital assets. This also explains their subsequent series of aggressive moves.

Part 3: The "Triple Strike" in the Second Half of 2025

🎯 First Strike: Entering the S&P 500 In September 2025, Robinhood was added to the S&P 500, replacing Caesars Entertainment. This was an identity-level change: from a fringe platform → mainstream financial infrastructure. That day, its stock rose about 15%, with passive funds continuously flowing in.

🎯 Second Strike: Prediction Market Boom In March 2025, Robinhood partnered with regulated Kalshi to launch the prediction market Hub.

Users could trade based on sports, economic data, public events, etc.

The data within a year was staggering: Over 1 million users Cumulative trading of 9 billion contracts Annualized revenue exceeding $100 million Later, Robinhood directly acquired CFTC-licensed exchange MIAXdx, no longer just a platform but infrastructure.

🎯 Third Strike: Full Rollout of Tokenized Stocks In July 2025,

Robinhood launched tokenized stocks in Europe.

Six months later (early 2026): – Nearly 2,000 supported assets – Covering most U.S. stocks and ETFs – Supporting 7×24 trading – Minimum threshold of just €1

More importantly: Robinhood is developing its own chain (based on Arbitrum), aiming to enable these assets to circulate on-chain and be used across protocols in the future.

Part 4: An Overlooked Policy Variable Robinhood's CEO mentioned a potential policy direction: Every U.S. newborn would automatically receive a securities account at birth, with initial funds injected by the government.

If this mechanism is implemented and Robinhood becomes one of the main providers—user mindsets would see generational lock-in.

Of course, risks remain: On one hand, current valuations are already very aggressive, and market expectations for prediction markets and tokenized assets are high. If growth falls short, valuation fluctuations are inevitable.

Robinhood is no longer a "stock trading app" but is betting on the next generation of financial infrastructure. Its success depends on one thing—whether the next generation of users defaults to it as the "entry point."