Podcast Notes | Robinhood Crypto Head Personally Shares: Meme + Tokenized US Stocks Are Our "Barbell" Customer Acquisition Strategy, All Business Lines Now Generating Hundreds of Millions in Revenue

Compiled & Organized: TechFlow

Guest: Johann Kerbrat, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Crypto and International Business at Robinhood

Podcast Source: TheRollup

Original Title: Johann Kerbrat: Inside Robinhood's Crypto Strategy (Full Explanation)

Air Date: 2026-07-24

Disclosure

Johann Kerbrat is a Robinhood executive responsible for all product lines of the crypto business (including Robinhood Chain, tokenized stocks, staking services, perpetual contracts), and his compensation and equity incentives are directly tied to the $HOOD stock price. All discussions regarding Robinhood Chain in this episode involve businesses he is directly responsible for. The title uses "Insider Perspective" instead of "Analysis" to reflect this interest relationship.

Summary

Three weeks after the Robinhood Chain mainnet launch, weekly DEX trading volume exceeded $3 billion, transaction count surpassed 105 million, and TVL exceeded $300 million. Johann Kerbrat explained the chain's strategic logic in detail on a podcast for the first time: why choose a "barbell" layout (meme tokens + real-world assets in parallel), why use the Arbitrum tech stack instead of building a proprietary L1, and how to gradually move Robinhood's 27 million funded accounts on-chain. He clearly stated that the focus of competition is on "growing the pie" rather than fighting for share with Base, and revealed that tokenized stocks already cover 120+ countries and 90+ assets, with future expansion to international stocks and private markets.

Key Quotes

"Our philosophy is to make the chain permissionless and open to everything. Whether it's memes, RWAs, or many other products, we welcome them all. We are integrating deeply with the chain."

"Robinhood has 27 million funded accounts. For these users, DeFi is still too complex and requires too much technical knowledge. We are thinking about how to bring good DeFi products over while making them easy to use and accessible, without needing to create a wallet or manage private keys."

"I think competition ultimately benefits customers. When we launched crypto trading, we slashed fees significantly. It's still too early for on-chain now; discussing market share is premature."

"We've only been live for three weeks. If you are thinking about bringing tens of millions of users on-chain, bringing more utility, bringing things people actually use (not just fleeting volatility), then you are thinking about a long-term revenue source."

"We don't expect to see all of Robinhood's trading activity move on-chain by next year. That's a bit of a dream. But if we can find things that traditional methods can't do, such as international stocks, 24/7 trading, the chain can become the solution."

1. Three Weeks Since Launch: $3 Billion Weekly Volume is Just the Start

The host opened with a set of numbers: after the Robinhood Chain mainnet launch, weekly DEX trading volume reached $3 billion, over 50 million transactions, over 1 million addresses, and TVL exceeded $300 million.

Kerbrat's response was direct: these numbers have already been surpassed. He said that by morning that day, the transaction count had already exceeded 105 million. He described the team's state as "very excited," with the core point being that this number reflects the intensity of market demand for on-chain products.

He particularly emphasized that the ecosystem was ready to onboard developers from the start, rather than building first and waiting for people to come. This differs from the path of many L2s that launch empty and then slowly drive traffic.

2. "Barbell" Strategy: Why Memes and RWAs in Parallel

The host mentioned an interesting phenomenon: Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev described the on-chain ecosystem on social media as a "barbell" structure, with meme tokens on one end and real-world assets (RWAs) on the other, saying "you have two wolves inside you."

Kerbrat explained the internal thinking. The chain was toned as permissionless from day one, open to all types of applications. Meme tokens bring market makers and DeFi users, while RWAs serve users globally who cannot conveniently buy US stocks and ETFs. The two are not contradictory but rather pull in different groups.

He also mentioned several integrated products already launched: Robinhood Earn (earning stablecoin yields via on-chain protocols within the main App) and tokenized stocks (tradable in 120+ countries via Robinhood Wallet).

The host asked about the differences from traditional financial products. Kerbrat listed problems with the traditional system: wire transfers can only be operated between 9:30 and 4:00, commission-free brokers also only run during weekday market hours, and options and futures contracts expire. The on-chain version is a superior solution from a product perspective.

3. How to Move 27 Million Accounts On-Chain: The Fusion of DeFi and CeFi

Kerbrat threw out a key number: Robinhood has 27 million funded accounts. Most of these users have not encountered DeFi because DeFi is still complex and requires significant technical knowledge.

His solution is "the best of both worlds": using DeFi's underlying technology to provide high yields, and using Robinhood's frontend to provide simple UX/UI and security protection. Robinhood Earn is an example; users can earn on-chain yields within the main App without needing to create a wallet or manage private keys themselves.

He defines this trend as the "fusion of CeFi and DeFi": centralized platforms leveraging blockchain technology to make better products while maintaining a user-friendly experience.

Regarding the technical implementation of tokenized stocks, Kerbrat revealed a "just-in-time tokenization" mechanism. Traditional DEX listings require liquidity pools to be built in advance, but since Robinhood is already a broker and holds these stocks, it can quickly move stocks on-chain when users need to trade. The underlying layer uses a combination of prop AMM, standard AMM, RFQ, and classic pools to ensure good prices at any time.

Currently, there are 90+ stock tokens on the chain, but he believes this is just the start; future expansion will cover more asset classes such as international stocks and private markets.

4. Why Choose Arbitrum: The Logic Behind Not Building a Proprietary L1

The host asked a technical architecture question: why use Arbitrum's tech stack instead of building a proprietary chain.

Kerbrat's answer was pragmatic. Robinhood wants to focus on what it does best: doing UX/UI well, doing financial products well, rather than rebuilding something that already exists. Achieving Ethereum-level security and decentralization takes a long time and involves many decisions (migration from PoW to PoS, collaboration among multiple foundations). Directly using Ethereum's security and the liquidity of the EVM ecosystem is a more reasonable choice.

Reasons for choosing Arbitrum as the L2 tech stack include: Stylus (allows writing smart contracts in any programming language), extremely fast block production speed (financial products have high speed requirements), and low gas fees (can maintain low fees even during periods of high trading volume). He also mentioned actively suppressing gas fees when on-chain activity surged last week to ensure user experience was not affected.

Regarding the Ethereum "rent" controversy (Robinhood Chain earned over $1 million in revenue but only paid 1-2% to Ethereum), Kerbrat believes this is Ethereum's default mechanism setting, nothing to say about fair or unfair. His perspective is long-term: if Robinhood can bring tens of millions of users on-chain and bring real usage scenarios, this will ultimately become a long-term revenue source for the Ethereum ecosystem.

5. Competition with Base: Growing the Pie Rather Than Fighting for Share

The host mentioned the "artificial competition" between Robinhood Chain and Coinbase Base on social media. Base recently admitted social experiments failed and shifted to other directions, while Robinhood is also exploring the possibility of on-chain social trading.

Kerbrat's attitude towards competition is clear: competition benefits customers. Back when Robinhood launched crypto trading, it slashed fees significantly, and ultimately users benefited. But it is too early to discuss market share now; Robinhood Chain is only three weeks old, while Base has been running for a year or two.

He made a comparison with a number: currently only a tiny proportion of the global population holds tokenized assets. His goal is to grow the pie, allowing more people globally to own assets, rather than fighting for share in the existing small pie. Regarding Base's social experiments, he commented that "trying new things is normal; sometimes they fail, sometimes they succeed."

Robinhood's focus is on financial products: Earn, spot trading, perpetual contracts. These are areas they are good at and can bring value.

6. Logic Behind Choosing DeFi Partners

The host listed partners announced at the Robinhood Chain launch: Morpho (lending vaults), Lighter (perpetual contracts), 0x (aggregation and quoting API), Chainlink (oracle), LayerZero (cross-chain).

Kerbrat explained three criteria for choosing partners. First, Robinhood is a publicly listed company holding multiple licenses globally; partners must understand compliance requirements and cooperate. Second, they must be able to create a unique experience. For example, when cooperating with Morpho, it goes far beyond simply accessing an API; it requires customized stable rates, insurance mechanisms, and exclusive UX, requiring significant time for deep discussion and joint development. Third, there must be differentiation from competitors.

Regarding the timeline for perpetual contracts (perps) entering the US main App, Kerbrat stated they are still waiting for regulatory clarity; even if the CLARITY Act passes, perpetual contracts are another big issue. Currently, through the cooperation between Robinhood Wallet and Lighter, users can experience perpetual contract trading. He also revealed that Bitstamp (the European exchange acquired by Robinhood) is already expanding perpetual contracts, from crypto to commodities and ETF contracts.

7. From Broker to Super App: The Investment Logic of $HOOD

The last topic returned to an investment perspective. The host asked: What does holding $HOOD stock mean now?

Kerbrat depicted Robinhood's "super app" landscape: stocks, options, futures, prediction markets, crypto, credit cards (Platinum Card just released that day), banking services, AI agent trading (MCP already available). The core is to make an App that satisfies all financial needs of users at different life stages.

He specifically mentioned the lack of financial education: young people do not learn financial knowledge in school, but need to start considering retirement planning upon high school graduation. Robinhood wants to focus on financial education; the IRA account is one example.

From a business model perspective, currently each business line achieves nine-figure (hundreds of millions of USD) revenue; revenue sources are diversified, no longer just a pure trading platform. Regarding the chain's own revenue, Kerbrat admitted that adoption is currently prioritized over pure revenue. Gas fee setting is a balancing act: too low and it will be abused by spam transactions and bots; too high and it will hinder adoption. Currently, it is in a stage of "optimizing for adoption" rather than "optimizing for revenue."