Original title: Johann Kerbrat: Inside Robinhood’s Crypto Strategy (Full Explanation)
Original source: TheRollup
Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow
Conflict of Interest Statement
Johann Kerbrat is a Robinhood executive responsible for all crypto product lines (including Robinhood Chain, tokenized stocks, staking services, perpetual contracts). His compensation and equity incentives are directly tied to the $HOOD stock price. All discussions about Robinhood Chain in this episode involve his directly responsible business. The title uses "Insider Perspective" rather than "Analysis" to reflect this conflict of interest.
Summary
Three weeks after the mainnet launch of Robinhood Chain, weekly DEX trading volume exceeded $3 billion, with over 105 million transactions and TVL surpassing $300 million. Johann Kerbrat detailed the chain's strategic logic for the first time in a podcast: why choose a "barbell" layout (meme tokens + real-world assets in parallel), why use the Arbitrum tech stack instead of building an L1 from scratch, and how to gradually move Robinhood's 27 million funded accounts onto the chain. He clearly stated that the competitive focus is on "growing the pie" rather than competing with Base for market share, and revealed that tokenized stocks already cover 120+ countries and 90+ underlying assets, with future expansion to international stocks and private markets.
Key Quotes
"Our philosophy is to make the chain permissionless and open to everything. Memes, RWAs, and many other products are all welcome. We are deeply integrating 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 while making them easy to use and accessible, without needing to create wallets or manage private keys."
"I think competition ultimately benefits customers. We cut fees significantly when we launched crypto trading. It's still too early on-chain to discuss market share."
"We've only been live for three weeks. If you're thinking about bringing tens of millions of users on-chain, bringing more utility, bringing things people actually use (not just temporary volatility), then you're thinking about a long-term revenue stream."
"We don't expect all of Robinhood's trading activity to move on-chain next year. That would be a bit of a dream. But if we can find things that traditional methods can't do, like international stocks, 24/7 trading, then the chain can be the solution."
1. Three-Week Data: $3 Billion Weekly Volume Is Just the Start
The host opened with a set of numbers: after the mainnet launch of Robinhood Chain, weekly DEX trading volume reached $3 billion, with over 50 million transactions, over 1 million addresses, and TVL exceeding $300 million.
Kerbrat's response was straightforward: these numbers have already been surpassed. He said that morning, the transaction count had exceeded 105 million. He described the team as "very excited," with the core view that these numbers reflect the market's strong demand for on-chain products.
He particularly emphasized that the ecosystem was ready to accommodate developers from the start, rather than building first and waiting for people to come. This differs from the path of many L2s that launch with a dry run and then gradually attract users.
2. The "Barbell" Strategy: Why Meme and RWA Go Hand in Hand
The host mentioned an interesting phenomenon: Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev described the on-chain ecosystem as a "barbell" structure on social media, with meme tokens on one end and real-world assets (RWA) on the other, and said, "There are two wolves inside you."
Kerbrat explained the internal reasoning. The chain was set from day one as permissionless, open to all types of applications. Meme tokens brought in market makers and DeFi users, while RWA serves users worldwide who cannot easily buy US stocks and ETFs. The two are not contradictory; each attracts different groups.
He also mentioned several integrated products already launched: Robinhood Earn (earning stablecoin yields through on-chain protocols within the main app) and tokenized stocks (tradable in 120+ countries via Robinhood Wallet).
The host pressed on the differences from traditional financial products. Kerbrat listed issues with the traditional system: wire transfers can only be done between 9:30 and 4:00, commission-free brokers only operate during weekday market hours, and options and futures contracts expire. The on-chain version is a better solution from a product perspective.
3. How to Bring 27 Million Accounts On-Chain: The Fusion of DeFi and CeFi
Kerbrat dropped a key number: Robinhood has 27 million funded accounts. Most of these users have not been exposed to 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 generate yields, while 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.
He defined this trend as "the fusion of CeFi and DeFi": centralized platforms leverage blockchain technology to create 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 building liquidity pools in advance, but because Robinhood itself is a broker and holds these stocks, it can quickly bring stocks on-chain when users need to trade. The underlying technology uses a combination of prop AMM, standard AMM, RFQ, and classic pools to ensure good prices at all times.
Currently, there are 90+ stock tokens on-chain, but he believes this is just the beginning, with future expansion to international stocks, private markets, and more asset classes.
4. Why Choose Arbitrum: The Logic of Not Building Your Own L1
The host asked a technical architecture question: why use Arbitrum's tech stack instead of building your own chain.
Kerbrat's answer was pragmatic. Robinhood wants to focus on what it does best: good UX/UI and good financial products, 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 times (financial products require high speed), and low gas fees (even during periods of high transaction volume). He also mentioned that during last week's surge in on-chain activity, they actively lowered gas fees 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 and is not a matter of fairness. His perspective is long-term: if Robinhood can bring tens of millions of users on-chain with real use cases, this will ultimately become a long-term revenue source for the Ethereum ecosystem.
5. Competition with Base: Growing the Pie, Not Grabbing Share
The host mentioned the "manufactured competition" between Robinhood Chain and Coinbase Base on social media. Base recently admitted the social experiment failed and pivoted to other directions, while Robinhood is also exploring the possibility of on-chain social trading.
Kerbrat's attitude toward competition is clear: competition is good for customers. Back when Robinhood launched crypto trading, it slashed fees significantly, and the ultimate beneficiaries were users. But it's 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 used a number for comparison: currently, only a very small fraction of the global population holds tokenized assets. His goal is to grow the pie, enabling more people worldwide to own assets, rather than grabbing share in the existing small plate. Regarding Base's social experiment, he commented, "It's normal to try new things; sometimes they fail, sometimes they succeed."
Robinhood's focus is on financial products: Earn, spot trading, perpetual contracts. These are areas where they excel and can bring value.
6. The Logic Behind Choosing DeFi Partners
The host listed the partners announced at the launch of Robinhood Chain: Morpho (lending vaults), Lighter (perpetual contracts), 0x (aggregation and quote API), Chainlink (oracles), LayerZero (cross-chain).
Kerbrat explained three criteria for selecting partners. First, Robinhood is a publicly listed company with multiple licenses globally; partners must understand compliance requirements and cooperate. Second, they must be able to create a unique experience. For example, the collaboration with Morpho goes far beyond simply integrating an API; it requires customized stable interest rates, insurance mechanisms, and a dedicated UX, demanding extensive deep discussions and joint development. Third, they must differentiate from competitors.
Regarding the timeline for perpetual contracts (perps) to enter the main US app, Kerbrat said they are still waiting for regulatory clarity; even if the CLARITY Act passes, perpetual contracts are another major issue. Currently, through the partnership 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, extending from crypto to commodities and ETF contracts.
7. From Broker to Super App: The Investment Logic of $HOOD
The last topic returned to the investment perspective. The host asked: What does holding $HOOD stock mean now?
Kerbrat outlined Robinhood's "super app" landscape: stocks, options, futures, prediction markets, crypto, credit cards (just launched a platinum card that day), banking services, AI agent trading (MCP already available). The core is to have one app that meets all financial needs of users at different life stages.
He specifically highlighted the lack of financial education: young people don't learn finance in school, but they need to start thinking about retirement planning after high school. Robinhood wants to focus on financial education, and the IRA account is one example.
From a business model perspective, each business line has achieved nine-figure (hundreds of millions of dollars) revenue, with diversified revenue sources, no longer just a pure trading platform. Regarding the chain's own revenue, Kerbrat admitted that adoption is currently prioritized over pure revenue. Setting gas fees is a balancing act: too low and it gets abused by spam transactions and bots; too high and it hinders adoption. They are currently in a phase of "optimizing for adoption" rather than "optimizing for revenue."
