What Robinhood really wants to do is create an on-chain Nasdaq.

Author: Very, Very LargeOrangeSource: X,@0xVeryBigOrangerange

I think the entire market has underestimated Robinhood's move to build a public blockchain.

Many people's first reaction to the news was: HOOD released a Layer 2.

But I believe what they really want to create isn't a public blockchain, but rather—an Onchain Nasdaq. This is what's truly noteworthy. For decades, the underlying architecture of US stock trading has remained virtually unchanged: **User places order → Brokerage → Exchange → Clearinghouse → T+1 settlement.** What Robinhood wants to change is this underlying architecture. On July 1st, Robinhood Chain officially launched its mainnet. This is an Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain built on the Arbitrum Orbit technology stack, specifically designed for the tokenization of traditional securities assets such as stocks and ETFs. In the future, one share of Apple, one share of Nvidia, and one share of Tesla could essentially become a token on the blockchain, traded 24/7, and available in over 120 countries and regions (currently not including US users). For the first time, stocks will truly become composable assets. It can not only be bought and sold, but also: 24/7 trading; Used as collateral for lending (Robinhood has launched on-chain lending products with an annualized return of approximately 7%); Participating in DeFi; Providing liquidity (LP); Having assets automatically managed and allocated by an AI Agent; Stocks will no longer be just stocks, but will become on-chain financial Lego. However, there's a detail worth noting: Currently, these Stock Tokens are legally closer to debt instruments tracking stock price performance than direct equity; holders do not enjoy shareholder rights. This is why Robinhood chose to use the HOOD stock price to represent the market's expectations for the blockchain, rather than issuing a native on-chain token—you're actually buying "whether Robinhood can make this happen," not the blockchain's token itself. Many people like to compare Coinbase and Robinhood. But I think the two companies have gone down completely different paths. Coinbase aims to bring the internet onto the blockchain. Base, USDC, DeFi, payments, Social… creating an open on-chain economy. Robinhood, on the other hand, aims to bring Wall Street onto the blockchain. Stocks, ETFs, RWA, on-chain securities, on-chain settlement. The real competition in the future won't be about who has the lowest fees, but about who can become the platform for the issuance and circulation of global financial assets. There's another point, which I think many in the market haven't realized. Robinhood Chain isn't a new Layer 1. It has chosen Ethereum + Arbitrum Orbit (gas is still settled in ETH, unlike most Orbit chains that choose custom gas tokens). What does this mean? It's not competing with Ethereum, but rather adding a large-scale financial application to the Ethereum ecosystem. In recent years, we have seen an increasing number of traditional financial assets choosing to deploy on the Ethereum ecosystem: Stablecoins, RWA, On-Chain Funds, Tokenized Stocks. If more and more financial institutions follow this path in the future, then ETH's positioning may increasingly resemble TCP/IP in the internet age. It's not something people discuss regularly, but more and more financial assets will run on it. Therefore, I increasingly believe one thing: the biggest narrative of the next decade will not necessarily be Meme, nor will it necessarily be just DeFi. What truly deserves attention is Wall Street Onchain. Robinhood and Coinbase are simply two different entry points. One is responsible for bringing the internet onto the blockchain. The other is responsible for bringing Wall Street onto the blockchain. If this trend holds true, then the next real competition in the crypto industry will no longer be about who has more memes, but about who can support global financial assets. Finally, here's my own assessment. If Robinhood can truly migrate tens of millions of brokerage users and hundreds of billions of dollars or even larger amounts of securities assets onto the blockchain in the future, then its competitors may no longer be other online brokerages, but the traditional securities trading and clearing system itself. By then, Robinhood's valuation logic may need to be redefined—it will no longer be just a brokerage firm, but more like a global financial infrastructure company. As for ETH, I believe its true value will not just be gas fees, but rather its gradual role as the underlying settlement layer for global financial assets. Of course, a reminder: the shareholder rights of Stock Tokens, regulatory characterization (the US SEC has already issued compliance warnings regarding similar structures), and whether it will expand to US users are all still in their early stages and deserve continued observation, rather than simple linear extrapolation. If this trend ultimately materializes, looking back at Robinhood Chain today, we might find it's not just another public chain, but a significant starting point for traditional finance's full-scale move onto the blockchain.