The well-known retail trading platform Robinhood has launched its own Ethereum layer 2 expansion, Robinhood Chain.
This project, which was revealed last year and has now gone live, has finally become a reality.
The official website provides a detailed introduction (https://robinhood.com/us/en/chain/) of the technology stack used for this layer 2 expansion and the ecological applications it hopes to build.
Robinhood Chain utilizes Arbitrum Orbit technology to create a layer 2 expansion, submitting blobs to the Ethereum mainnet, using ETH as the payment currency, and is a permissionless layer 2 expansion.
Its technical architecture is quite clear and developed, so there aren't many highlights from a technical perspective.
Its main highlight is the ecological applications.
As officially stated on the homepage------this chain is designed for stock tokens (The blockchain for Stock Tokens).
Regarding the stock tokens supported on this chain and related important issues, the official Q&A on the homepage (https://robinhood.com/rhj/stocktokens/) provides very detailed information.
- What are stock tokens?
They are tokenized stocks that completely correspond to the prices of physical stocks, but token holders cannot enjoy the rights of the stocks (such as voting rights, etc.).
- Who can buy stock tokens?
Investors worldwide wishing to purchase U.S. stocks, but citizens from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and some other countries are not allowed to buy their stock tokens.
- How to buy?
Purchase through the Robinhood Wallet on DEX or CEX.
- Are the tokens really backed by physical stocks?
Yes. Each token is backed 1:1 by physical stocks, which are held by a U.S. custodian.
- How do token holders receive dividends if the corresponding stocks pay dividends?
They will not receive cash dividends; instead, cash dividends will be converted into the corresponding stock tokens issued to the token holders.
- What happens to the tokens held by users if Robinhood goes bankrupt?
The corresponding stock tokens will be sold off and exchanged for cash to be distributed to the token holders.
According to these explanations from the official side, although the stock tokens launched by Robinhood are still not 100% "stocks," they significantly safeguard the interests of token holders in terms of economic rights.
After the official announcement of Robinhood Chain's launch, ecological partners such as dYdX and Uniswap shared the news and indicated that their applications also support trading these stock tokens.
By doing so, Robinhood has introduced stock tokens with greater economic rights protection into DeFi. As long as they are not citizens from the legally restricted areas defined by Robinhood, everyone can now purchase its stock tokens without permission.
Trading of stock tokens (tokenized stocks) has long been present in the crypto ecosystem, with both CEX and DEX in the Ethereum ecosystem.
I am not very concerned about trading in CEX, as there are too many regulatory pitfalls in there.
On the other hand, in trading on Ethereum's DEX, past stock tokens were either only price-pegged, stripping away important economic rights (like dividends), or were simply unpopular, and neither in trading volume nor liquidity did they make a substantial impact.
Now, with Robinhood leveraging its advantages accumulated in centralized exchanges to introduce stock tokens into DeFi, this is more worthy of attention than the tokenized stocks currently traded in CEX and DEX.
Can this layer 2 expansion from Robinhood establish a large, vibrant, permissionless RWA (stocks) trading ecosystem on-chain as it hopes?
I really hope it can succeed, but there is a rather twisted point in its current policy:
Its mainstream users are U.S. users, known as "the headquarters of retail investors in U.S. stocks," yet it now has to be hindered by regulatory barriers to not open up to U.S. users.
If it relies solely on attracting users from other regions, how big can its ecosystem be?
Additionally, even if regulations allow in the future and it completely opens its U.S. stock tokens trading to U.S. users, how many U.S. users will actually participate in trading?
This is a point I have always doubted and remain less certain about.
For RWA to truly grow into a vibrant ecosystem as many hope, relying solely on institutions will not suffice; a large number of actively trading retail investors is also necessary. Therefore, establishing a permissionless RWA ecosystem aimed at retail investors on-chain is a must-tread path.
This path has not been taken by several large exchanges, which only lay out plans in their own CEXes or occasionally test the waters in their own supported DEXs.
Only Robinhood has now boldly taken this step.
Next, we’ll see how it develops.
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