The Cryptonomist interviewed Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood Crypto’s GM and SVP to discuss Robinhood’s year in crypto and the company’s plans for what’s next.
With ETH and SOL staking finally available in New York, which has historically been one of the most restrictive jurisdictions, what regulatory or technical hurdles did you overcome to make this possible?
New York has one of the most rigorous regulatory frameworks for crypto, and we’ve always taken a thoughtful, compliant-first approach to expanding access there. For staking, that meant working closely with regulators to ensure our products meet the highest standards of consumer protection, transparency, and operational security.
On the technical side, we designed our staking experience to be simple, intuitive, and aligned with evolving guidance on reward distribution and custody. Bringing staking to New York is an important milestone, and we’re proud to offer this functionality in a way that puts customer safety first.
You’re expanding from 3 to 7 fee tiers with rates as low as 0.03%. What behavior are you hoping to incentivize, and how do you ensure this doesn’t create an uneven playing field between retail and high-volume traders?
Over the past year, we’ve seen growing engagement from pro traders using Robinhood Crypto. Expanding our fee tiers gives high-volume traders a more competitive structure that scales with their trading volume while keeping the platform accessible for everyone.
The new structure benefits all crypto users on Robinhood. Everyday investors continue to enjoy low, transparent pricing, while high-volume active traders, including Legend users and API traders, now gain access to even lower rates as they increase trading volume.
Allowing users to manually edit cost basis is a big step for tax transparency. Why now, and how does Robinhood think about the balance between user control and accuracy in tax reporting?
Tracking gains and losses is a common pain point for advanced traders. Giving customers the ability to manually edit cost basis puts more control in their hands and provides a way to make tax reporting significantly more precise. We built the feature with safeguards to maintain clarity, and we’ll continue expanding tools that help customers navigate taxes with confidence.
As fee tier support comes to the trading API, are you expecting more algorithmic or institutional-style traders to enter Robinhood’s ecosystem? How do you plan to manage that shift while keeping the product retail-friendly?
Our API is designed to give active traders more flexibility, while keeping the platform approachable for retail customers. We expect some growth from more systematic traders, but our focus remains on building intuitive and powerful products for our customers. As our customer base evolves, we’ll keep the guardrails, education, and usability principles that have always defined Robinhood.
You’ve added XRP, SOL, DOGE, and SUI perpetual futures with up to 7x leverage. What guardrails are in place to ensure European retail users understand and manage the risks of leveraged derivatives?
Robinhood provides tools like margin health indicators, risk alerts, and optional take profit and stop loss orders to help you manage risk. But it’s important you understand how perpetuals work, how leverage can impact your potential profits and losses, and how to effectively use the risk management tools before you trade perpetuals. This is a product reserved for advanced traders, Customers need to complete an appropriateness assessment before being able to trade perpetuals on the platform.
MMFs are a big step toward making Robinhood a more complete financial platform in Europe. What criteria do you use to select which MMFs to offer, and how will you differentiate this from traditional bank savings options?
Money Market Funds are a new way for customers to earn interest on uninvested cash. Managed by leading global partners such as J.P. Morgan, these funds provide low-risk, short-term investment options that generate daily yield paid out monthly, helping customers make the most of their idle balances. We evaluate funds based on liquidity, risk profile, and transparency.
Unlike savings accounts, which are typically fixed-rate and limited to local currencies, MMFs are investment products that generate yield from diversified, short-term market instruments. They combine liquidity and competitive returns and are fully transparent about performance and underlying assets.
You’re bringing more than 1,000 stock tokens to EU customers. How do you address regulatory concerns around tokenization of equities, especially regarding voting rights, custody, and underlying asset correlation?
We launched Robinhood Stock Tokens in the EU, where regulatory clarity allows us to offer tokenized instruments under our MiFID II license. Robinhood Europe, UAB is authorized and regulated by the Bank of Lithuania as a financial brokerage firm and a crypto-asset service provider.
Stock Tokens are backed 1:1 by underlying securities held with a qualified custodian, giving customers transparent economic exposure even though the tokens do not grant voting rights.
We are committed to working with regulators globally to establish regulatory clarity for tokenized stocks. As tokenization grows, regulators may require companies that want to be tokenized to disclose more information, similar to the same level of transparency retail and accredited investors have today.
The EU experience has been mobile-only so far. What user behaviors or market feedback convinced you that now is the right moment to introduce a web platform, and how will the web experience differ from the U.S. version?
As our user base has grown, we’ve seen increasing demand for a clean, desktop experience – especially from more active traders. The web platform we’re rolling out will bring the same intuitive design Robinhood is known for, with features tailored for EU customers.
With $51B in crypto AUC and $232B in notional volume over the past 12 months, what segments of users are driving this growth—new retail, power traders, or returning users from the 2021 cycle?
We’re seeing momentum across segments. New retail investors continue to enter the crypto space, while returning customers are engaging with new features. Our customers are approaching crypto with more discipline and long-term strategy and we’re continuing to build powerful tools to cater to their needs.
You’re building Robinhood Chain with Arbitrum, aiming to power tokenization of real-world and digital assets. What specific use cases do you see emerging first, and how will Robinhood’s chain compete with established RWA ecosystems like Polygon, Avalanche, or Solana?
Currently in development, Robinhood Chain will be optimized for tokenized real-world assets and built to support 24/7 trading, seamless bridging, and self-custody.
Early use cases will likely focus on assets our customers are familiar with, like tokenized equities.
Our goal isn’t to replace existing ecosystems, but to complement them with an experience that brings people onchain in a safe and regulated way.
