By Andrew Welsch
Robinhood is expanding its toolkit for investors and its reach abroad. On Wednesday, the company unveiled new AI cryptocurrency trading capabilities for U.S. customers, new perpetual futures contracts for European customers, and expansion efforts in Canada and Singapore.
Johann Kerbrat, general manager of crypto and international at Robinhood, says the initiatives are intended to broaden access to investment strategies and products to more customers in markets outside the U.S. "We want to extend this vision to the rest of the world," Kerbrat tells Barron's.
Robinhood has been aiming to grow its footprint in markets outside the U.S. in recent years. It unveiled the new services Wednesday at a live event in London, almost a year after it hosted a similar product launch event in the south of France. The shares were up 8% as of 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
EU Futures. Robinhood said it is expanding the types of perpetual futures contracts available to customers in the European Union. Perpetual futures are derivative contracts that allow an investor to speculate on the underlying asset. Unlike traditional futures, they do not expire, a feature that allows an investor to hold the contract for longer than they normally could.
Eligible Robinhood customers in the E.U. can now trade perpetual futures contracts for commodities and certain currencies and exchange-traded funds, such as gold, silver, and Invesco's popular QQQ ETF that tracks the Nasdaq-100 index. Robinhood said the move expands the range of advanced derivatives available on a single platform.
Asia expansion. Across the Pacific, the company is trying to make inroads in Asia. Robinhood said it has received a capital markets services licence in Singapore, bringing it a step closer to offering brokerage services to customers in the island nation.
Crypto moves. Across the English Channel, Robinhood said it intends to launch a cryptocurrency offering in the United Kingdom. "We're very excited about that because only brokerage products have been available up until today," says Kerbrat.
In Canada, Robinhood said it is making its crypto offering available to Canadian investors and offering zero trading fees to Canadian customers until Sept. 30. The move builds on Robinhood's acquisition this year of Canadian digital asset company WonderFi. It doesn't yet offer traditional equity brokerage services to Canadian investors.
In the U.S., Robinhood is building on its AI capabilities for customers; the company said it will enable agentic trading for cryptocurrencies at no additional cost. Customers will be able to connect their own AI agents to Robinhood and have those agents trade crypto on their behalf. Robinhood enabled agentic trading for stocks and options in the U.S. last month.
Other financial services companies have also been launching AI capabilities for customers, offering them AI agents that can answer their questions about finances and help identify trading opportunities. Some companies, including Robinhood, have also been allowing users to connect their own AI agents to buy and sell securities on their behalf.
DeFi moves. On Wednesday, Robinhood also said it is enhancing its blockchain capabilities for customers by launching a main network for Robinhood Chain. The company says Robinhood Chain is built to support real world assets.
In addition, the company said it was making available new tokenized stocks that eligible customers could trade around the clock on the Robinhood Chain. Stock tokens are not available in the U.S. or to U.S. customers.
Eligible U.S. customers will also have access to Robinhood Earn, a new lending service that allows users to lend a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin known as USDG through a self-custody wallet. Robinhood said the underlying lending infrastructure is powered by Morpho, a decentralized lending network.
Write to Andrew Welsch at andrew.welsch@barrons.com
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