Vlad Tenev's Crypto Ambitions: He Doesn't Want to Start Another Exchange, He Wants to Move Wall Street on Chain

The previous article discussed how @vladtenev packaged U.S. stock trading into mobile phones.

This article will talk about: he is trying to fit the entire Wall Street into blockchain.

Many traditional finance bosses understand crypto in a very simple way:

If BTC goes up, increase trading entry points;

If BTC goes down, increase risk warnings.

But Vlad's understanding of crypto has evolved from "selling coins" to "building roads."

At the Robinhood Q1 2026 earnings call, he explicitly stated that he hopes everyone won't always focus on the prices of Bitcoin and other native crypto assets.

What Robinhood truly wants to do is apply crypto infrastructure to real-use assets, such as stablecoins, stocks, and other real-world assets.

He even used a very crypto-specific term:

Tokenization Supercycle.

Translating it into plain language:

The coin price is the weather, blockchain is the road.

Vlad doesn't want to guess when the next rain will come every day; he wants to build the roads, toll booths, wallets, and trading halls together.

Phase One: Let Retail Investors Buy Coins Cheaply

In 2018, Robinhood Crypto launched.

Initially, there were only BTC and ETH, using the approach Robinhood was most familiar with:

Low threshold, low cost, all-day trading, bringing young users who were originally trading stocks into the crypto market.

At this stage, the crypto business was essentially a new section in the Robinhood App.

It was like how the first floor of a mall originally only sold stocks, and now there's an additional crypto counter next to it.

But the problem was quite obvious:

Users could buy and sell crypto assets, but it was hard to truly enter the on-chain world.

Being able to see prices and trade does not equate to being able to use blockchain.

Phase Two: From "You Buy Coins Here," to "You Hold the Keys Yourself"

In 2022, Robinhood announced the launch of a non-custodial Web3 wallet.

Vlad said something very important at that time:

Crypto is not just an asset class.

This means that Robinhood's goal is no longer just to compete with Coinbase for spot trading volume.

It began to try to allow users to hold their private keys, connect DApps, exchange assets, and enter DeFi.

In 2023, Robinhood Wallet was opened to global iOS users; that same year, Robinhood Crypto officially entered the EU market.

Robinhood began transitioning from an American internet brokerage to a global crypto entry point.

Simply put:

Previously, Robinhood was responsible for keeping your tickets safe;

Later, it handed both tickets and keys to you;

Now, it is preparing to build the venue itself.

Phase Three: Acquire Bitstamp to Complete Institutional and Global Licenses

In 2025, Robinhood completed the acquisition of Bitstamp.

Founded in 2011, Bitstamp is one of the oldest operating crypto exchanges in the world, holding over 50 active licenses and registrations, with business coverage in the U.S., U.K., EU, and Asia.

It also has institutional clients, order books, trading APIs, staking, and Crypto-as-a-Service.

So what Robinhood acquired was not just the name of an exchange.

What it truly acquired was:

Global licenses, institutional clients, trading depth, backend systems, and years of accumulated compliance experience.

This acquisition also allowed Robinhood to have real institutional-grade crypto business for the first time.

In 2026, Robinhood entered Canada through the acquisition of WonderFi, incorporating Bitbuy and Coinsquare into its portfolio.

Therefore, Vlad's globalization strategy isn't just "translating the app into a few more languages."

Instead, it's about piecing together regulated platforms, user entry points, and trading infrastructure.

Phase Four: Turn Stocks into Tokens

Vlad's greatest interest in crypto may not be "What is the next hundred-fold coin?"

The real question he wants to answer is:

Since crypto assets can be transferred 24/7, why do stocks have to be divided into distinct pieces by trading times, settlement cycles, and national borders?

In 2025, Robinhood first launched stock and ETF tokens in Europe, followed by announcing its Layer 2 plan.

Vlad stated at the time that these products were laying the groundwork for "crypto to become the foundation of the global financial system."

By 2026, the Robinhood Chain public mainnet officially went live.

This is a Layer 2 built on the Arbitrum tech stack, compatible with EVM:

Mainnet Chain ID is 4663, using ETH to pay for gas, focusing on financial services and real-world assets.

Infrastructure like Uniswap, Chainlink, Alchemy, BitGo, Morpho has already been integrated.

At the same time, the new generation of Robinhood Stock Tokens began to be opened to eligible users in over 120 countries and regions through Robinhood Wallet.

These assets can not only be traded all day but also enter lending pools, serve as collateral, and connect to different DEXs.

This is what Vlad means by "crypto becoming the foundation of the global financial system":

It does not require the whole world to first learn mnemonic phrases, cross-chain bridges, and slippage settings, while wearing sunglasses and shouting WAGMI.

Instead, it's about gradually giving stocks, ETFs, USD, and other financial assets the transferability, all-weather trading capabilities, and on-chain composability of crypto assets.

Phase Five: Bringing AI Agents to the Trading Table

Robinhood is also integrating AI agents into stock, options, and crypto trading.

Users can allocate funds to the AI, set permissions and safety boundaries, and let it continuously analyze data and execute strategies.

This means that the future Vlad envisions may be:

Humans are responsible for setting goals, AI for finding opportunities, and blockchain for asset and settlement.

Traditional brokerages operate Monday through Friday.

But AI and blockchain clearly have no concept of "off hours."

Putting these actions together, Vlad's complete layout emerges:

Robinhood App, responsible for user entry;

Bitstamp, responsible for global trading and institutional clients;

WonderFi, responsible for the Canadian market;

Robinhood Wallet, responsible for self-custody and on-chain interactions;

Stock Tokens, responsible for tokenizing traditional assets;

Robinhood Chain, responsible for supporting trading, lending, and on-chain applications;

AI Agent, responsible for next-generation automated operations.

This is no longer just "adding a little bit of crypto business."

Robinhood is attempting to package users, asset issuance, centralized trading, self-custody wallets, DeFi, blockchain settlement, and AI operations into the same financial ecosystem.

As of Q2 2026, Robinhood has 28.4 million funded customers and $369 billion in platform assets.

So the Robinhood Chain is worth paying attention to, not just because there is another Layer 2 in the market.

But because behind this chain stands a publicly-listed brokerage with nearly 30 million customers, along with the assembled exchanges, wallets, licenses, and asset issuance systems.

From the crypto trading entry in 2018, to non-custodial wallets, Bitstamp, stock tokens, and now the Robinhood Chain, Vlad's path is actually becoming clearer:

He is not satisfied with letting users buy coins in Robinhood; he hopes that future stocks, dollars, and other financial assets can flow freely through crypto infrastructure.

My Judgment

Vlad is not a typical Bitcoin extremist, nor does he resemble an exchange boss who only chases trends.

From his public statements and product roadmap, he seems more like a "crypto infrastructure advocate."

He is not betting on a particular coin.

He is betting that more and more assets will become forms that can be issued, traded, collateralized, and composited on-chain.

Robinhood takes care of front-end user experience, while blockchain handles backend asset circulation, and AI manages the next generation of trading operations.

If this approach succeeds, the Robinhood Chain will not just be an "L2 issued by a brokerage."

It might become the on-chain foundation of Robinhood's global financial ecosystem.

What the crypto industry excels at is:

First having a Ticker, then finding a product;

First building a group, then writing a white paper;

First shouting about an ecosystem, then asking what exactly is in the ecosystem.

But Vlad's approach is just the opposite:

He first pieced together brokerages, exchanges, wallets, licenses, stock tokens, and blockchain, then asked—

If all assets can become Tokens in the future, can Robinhood become the largest entry point?

This is the real point of interest regarding Robinhood Chain recently.

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