Robinhood is a well-known internet brokerage in the United States, with a high level of recognition among young users in the country. In addition to traditional brokerage services, Robinhood has been actively extending its business into the crypto ecosystem in recent years.

Now, Robinhood has finally made a substantial move. On July 1st, Robinhood announced on its official Twitter that it will collaborate with Arbitrum to build an Ethereum-based layer two expansion using Arbitrum's Orbit technology stack.

The most important goal of this move by Robinhood is to construct its own platform, where it can achieve stock tokenization and conduct related token trading.

It is not surprising for traditional financial institutions to enter the Ethereum ecosystem; previously, BlackRock invested in RWA to purchase Ethereum, and JP Morgan issued crypto assets based on Base, among other actions.

However, these actions differ significantly from Robinhood's direct construction of its own layer two expansion.

The actions of these large financial institutions seem to be exploratory, while Robinhood's actions represent a full commitment to the battle. Now, it is not just an internet brokerage but is about to become a crypto enterprise.

Interestingly, just recently, Coinbase submitted an application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for stock tokenization trading. I believe that given the SEC's current attitude and efficiency, the approval results should come out soon and will likely be optimistic.

I wonder if Robinhood chose this timing because it saw this favorable opportunity?

It is conceivable that if the SEC's approval yields optimistic results, Coinbase and Robinhood will become pioneers in stock tokenization trading among publicly listed companies in the U.S. This potential will likely be amplified and speculated upon by participants.

In fact, Robinhood's stock price has already started to show signs of movement recently.

Beyond raising expectations and boosting stock prices, the more significant meaning of Robinhood's move is that it will undoubtedly serve as a strong demonstration effect in the U.S. brokerage industry. Firstly, it provides a reference for the industry in terms of technology selection, and secondly, it sets a model for business expansion.

I believe more brokerages will build their platforms through Ethereum layer two expansions and will quickly venture into stock tokenization.

I have never had much interest in stock tokenization, as I have shared multiple times in previous articles. What I am genuinely interested in is another piece of information that seems to have gone unnoticed by many:

At the same time that Robinhood announced the construction of its L2, someone discovered that a transfer transaction had already taken place on Arbitrum, and the transaction involved equity in OpenAI.

In my view, this is essentially a repackaged version of an ICO.

And what does ICO mean? I believe participants who experienced that frenzied history will remember it vividly.

According to public information, OpenAI conducted its latest round of financing in March this year, raising $40 billion, with a valuation of $300 billion.

Since OpenAI is a private company, its current series of financing valuations are relatively low. When it goes public, its valuation will generally be several levels higher than it is now. However, its pre-IPO financing typically does not target retail investors but focuses on institutions. Therefore, we often say that the bulk of the profits from such companies are consumed by VCs.

The reason ICOs were able to create a frenzy in the crypto ecosystem was that, on one hand, they facilitated project financing, and on the other hand, they allowed retail investors to participate in early-stage investments, potentially yielding astonishing returns.

Now that OpenAI's unlisted equity has been tokenized and traded on-chain, it sets a precedent for equity trading in such companies.

Looking across the tech industry, there are many good companies like OpenAI that are still in the financing stage and not publicly listed. If in the future, their unlisted equity can be traded in this way and retail investors can participate, the potential is vast.

Therefore, I estimate that companies like Robinhood and Coinbase, after achieving stock tokenization trading, will next explore equity tokenization trading. If equity tokenization trading can be opened to retail investors, the potential returns it could bring to them would be quite remarkable.

Of course, the barrier to opening equity tokenization trading to retail investors lies not in technology but in regulation.

Fortunately, the current SEC has a relatively lenient regulatory attitude. I wonder if this will bring benefits to retail investors and the entire crypto ecosystem?

In my previous articles, when sharing about the prosperity of the last Ethereum ecosystem, I specifically mentioned that NFTs are one of the few applications that can bring a large number of outside users into the crypto ecosystem.

Now, Robinhood's actions seem to show a hint of this trend, but we will have to wait and see how the final effect turns out.

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