Robinhood has launched its Ethereum Layer 2 mainnet alongside tokenized stock trading and perpetual futures, expanding its blockchain based financial services beyond the testnet stage.

According to an announcement during the company’s “The World is Flat” event in London, Robinhood has unveiled the public mainnet of Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum Layer 2 network built with Arbitrum technology, while introducing tokenized stocks and decentralized perpetual futures trading as part of its latest international product rollout.

Speaking during the launch, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev and other executives described the announcement as the company’s most ambitious global expansion and product strategy so far, with a focus on combining traditional financial products with decentralized finance infrastructure.

Robinhood Chain moves from testnet to mainnet

Robinhood Chain has been launched as a permissionless, AI native Ethereum Layer 2 network designed for real world assets. Built using Arbitrum’s technology stack to institutional standards, the network includes integrations with Alchemy, BitGo, and Chainlink, while also supporting built in DeFi features such as lending and borrowing.

The company said Uniswap will deploy a dedicated automated market maker as the chain’s primary public liquidity protocol, while Pleiades will launch its own automated market maker to serve as the primary proprietary trading venue.

The mainnet launch follows Robinhood Chain’s public testnet debut in February. At the time, Tenev said the network processed more than four million transactions during its first week, with developers already experimenting with tokenized stock assets and decentralized financial applications. The testnet was built to let developers evaluate tools and infrastructure before the production rollout.

Tokenized stocks and perpetual futures expand offering

Alongside the blockchain launch, Robinhood introduced a new version of Stock Tokens that allows eligible users to trade tokenized equities around the clock directly on Robinhood Chain. According to the company’s disclosures, the tokens can also be used as collateral across decentralized finance applications and deployed into lending pools.

Robinhood said the new Stock Tokens are tokenized debt securities issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited. While they provide economic exposure to the underlying shares, holders do not receive legal ownership or beneficial rights in the underlying stocks.

Eligible users in more than 120 countries can access the assets through Robinhood Wallet, with spot trading available on decentralized exchanges including Uniswap, Rialto, Lighter, 1inch and Arcus, which was developed by the team behind dYdX. The company said the product is unavailable to users in the United States and remains restricted in several other jurisdictions, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and sanctioned regions.

Robinhood also renamed its earlier tokenized equity product as Classic Stock Tokens. Those assets, first introduced during the company’s Cannes event in June 2025, will continue to operate inside the Robinhood Europe app after the launch of the new on chain version.

Attention also turned to Robinhood Wallet, which now offers eligible users in selected jurisdictions access to perpetual futures through Ethereum-based decentralized exchange Lighter. According to the company’s disclosures, the product is not available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and other restricted markets.

Robinhood said Lighter has allocated $11 million worth of its native LIT tokens to the Robinhood community. Eligible users will earn trading points on perpetual futures transactions that convert into LIT tokens, with trades executed through Robinhood Wallet receiving double the points compared with trades placed directly through Lighter’s web application.

Key Highlights

• Trading volume across Kalshi, Polymarket, and Polymarket US surged to $44.8 billion in June, marking a 75% increase from May’s figures
• Kalshi dominated growth with an impressive 87.4% month-over-month expansion, totaling $31.5 billion
• Polymarket’s international platform jumped 45% to $10.26 billion, while its U.S. version reached $3.04 billion
• FIFA World Cup 2026, launching June 11, served as the primary catalyst for unprecedented trading activity
• Kalshi’s World Cup championship market alone accumulated over $832 million in wagers, with France leading at 35% probability

The prediction market industry witnessed its most explosive month ever in June, with major platforms Kalshi and Polymarket experiencing unprecedented growth driven primarily by FIFA World Cup 2026 enthusiasm.

New figures from The Block reveal that Kalshi, Polymarket, and Polymarket US collectively generated $44.8 billion in trading activity throughout June. This represents a substantial 75% leap compared to the $25.66 billion recorded in May.

These statistics underscore the rapidly expanding mainstream acceptance of prediction markets, platforms where participants wager actual funds on outcomes spanning political contests, sporting events, and other real-world developments.

Kalshi Dominates Market Share

Kalshi emerged as the clear leader among the three platforms, demonstrating exceptional performance. Monthly volume skyrocketed from $16.81 billion in May to $31.5 billion in June, representing an 87.4% monthly surge.

This achievement positions Kalshi as the undisputed volume leader, capturing over two-thirds of the combined three-platform total.

Polymarket’s primary international platform generated $10.26 billion throughout June, representing a 45% uptick from May’s $7.08 billion figure.

After experiencing consecutive monthly declines from March through May, Polymarket successfully reversed its downward trajectory in June.

Meanwhile, Polymarket US, the platform’s CFTC-regulated American operation, secured $3.04 billion in June volume, climbing from May’s $1.77 billion.

World Cup Emerges as Primary Growth Engine

The commencement of FIFA World Cup 2026 on June 11 has unquestionably been the dominant force propelling activity across all three prediction market platforms.

Kalshi’s tournament champion prediction market has single-handedly generated more than $832 million in total bets. Approximately 35% of those wagers favor France capturing the championship.

On Polymarket, individual match contracts have consistently attracted between $500,000 and $2 million in volume per game.

With the tournament scheduled to conclude on July 19, elevated trading volumes are expected to persist for multiple additional weeks.

These impressive volume figures emerge as prediction market platforms continue navigating complex regulatory challenges across the United States.

Over a dozen state regulatory bodies have initiated legal proceedings targeting both Kalshi and Polymarket. These jurisdictions claim the platforms provide unauthorized sports wagering or gambling services to their residents.

Both companies, supported by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s position, maintain that federal regulatory authority permits them to facilitate sports-related prediction markets without securing individual state licenses.

This regulatory conflict remains unresolved, though it has not dampened trading momentum in the immediate term.

June’s combined performance establishes a new benchmark for monthly platform volume, with significant World Cup action still remaining before tournament completion.

“Historically, sustained transitions from net distribution to net accumulation have often emerged during periods of market weakness, as long-term investors gradually increase their holdings while shorter-term participants de-risk,” Glassnode said in its latest report.

Small wallets lead dip-buying

The signal gets more interesting when looking at the broader accumulation picture with the help of Glassnode’s Accumulation Trend Score. This indicator measures buying behavior across wallet sizes on a rolling 30-day basis on a scale from 0 to 1, and has shifted meaningfully higher over the past month, suggesting broad-based bargain hunting.

The strongest accumulation is currently showing up among the smallest holders (under 1 BTC), whose trend score appears near maximum at roughly 0.8-0.9, and mid-sized entities holding between 100 and 1,000 BTC, which are also reading close to that range. Wallets in the 1-10 BTC and 10-100 BTC cohorts show moderate accumulation at roughly 0.6-0.7, while larger wallets in the 1,000-10,000 BTC range have also turned net buyers, though at a moderate reading of around 0.5-0.6.

What stands out is the largest whale cohort, wallets holding more than 10,000 BTC, which still reads closer to neutral at roughly 0.4-0.5, suggesting the biggest players have yet to commit meaningfully to the accumulation trend.

Still, the synchronized accumulation across most wallet-size cohorts is significant and suggests that BTC at $60,000 is cheap enough to attract new demand from several corners of the market at once.

The company behind the dYdX decentralized exchange (DEX) has partnered with Robinhood to rebrand and launch the protocol as Arcus on the Robinhood Chain.

An X account for Arcus posted on Wednesday that “dYdX is now Arcus” and would launch on the Robinhood Chain, Robinhood’s Arbitrum-based layer 2 blockchain that went live the same day.

The dYdX Foundation said that dYdX Labs created Arcus “in partnership with Robinhood” and that the dYdX blockchain “is not affected by it in any way.” The platform is set to be blockchain’s “leading DEX” and will give users access to perpetual products and fee-free trading of 95 tokenized stocks.

Source: Charles d’Haussy

The DEX is part of Robinhood’s expanded push into tokenized assets and perpetual trading, two areas of crypto that have recently exploded in popularity as US regulators have shown interest in allowing the products to more easily come to market.

Robinhood’s embrace of perpetual trading comes as it looks to entice traders who have flocked to the crypto perpetual futures platform Hyperliquid, whose token has climbed nearly 150% so far this year as it has captured market share.

Arcus to offer tokenized stock, perps trading

“Until now, traders have been shut out of the most valuable markets on earth — US equities, commodities, and indices — because of where they live, market hours, and institutions restricting access,” Arcus said in a blog post. “We built Arcus to reduce these barriers.”

The protocol said that it will offer perpetuals and tokenized stock trading that will go live this month, allowing tokenized stocks to be used as collateral for perpetuals and providing access to pre-IPO markets.

Related: CFTC chair says perp trading not suitable for all assets it regulates

It added that Robinhood Crypto, the company’s crypto technology arm, made an investment in Arcus but did not disclose further details.

The dYdX Foundation said that Arcus “is a distinct, independent product built on separate infrastructure” and that the dYdX blockchain would continue to operate and be owned by its community.

Major retail-focused trading platforms have been moving to expand their offerings to remain competitive. Crypto exchange Coinbase has looked to rival Robinhood and become a full-service trading platform, having added access to thousands of stocks earlier this year.

Robinhood’s blockchain also follows a similar move from Coinbase in 2023, when the latter launched its Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Base that has grown to be the fifth-largest by value locked, according to DeFiLlama.

Meanwhile, Bitget Wallet, the self-custodial wallet from the Bitget crypto exchange, said on Wednesday that it partnered with Robinhood Crypto to integrate the company’s blockchain to allow its users to trade tokenized stocks.

The decentralized exchange 1inch also said on Wednesday that it would be among the first major swap platforms to support Robinhood Chain. 

Big Questions: Do we really only need 2–5 cryptocurrencies?

Bitcoin BTC$60,396.90 traded above $60,700 on Thursday after a quick overnight reversal after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said inflation risks had eased, giving a market that spent most of June grinding lower its first clear lift in weeks.

Speaking at the European Central Bank’s annual forum in Sintra, Portugal, on Wednesday, Warsh said “inflation risks have come down” while reaffirming the Fed’s commitment to returning inflation to 2%.

He declined to signal what the central bank will do at its meeting later this month, saying policymakers would weigh incoming data first. Bitcoin pared earlier losses and pushed back above $60,000 after the remarks, according to CoinDesk reporting.

Solana led the majors. The token rose about 4% on the day to around $78 and is up roughly 16% over the past week, per CoinDesk data, the only large token with a meaningful weekly gain. Ether traded near $1,630, up about 3% on the day, while XRP held at about $1.06. BNB, dogecoin and Tron were softer over the week.

Forward Industries has expanded its Solana treasury after buying more than 500,000 SOL during fiscal Q3 2026. 

The Nasdaq-listed company said its total holdings reached 7.55 million SOL as of June 30.

The company bought the tokens at an average price of about $79 per SOL. It also said SOL per fully diluted share rose to 0.0729 from 0.0669 at the end of the prior quarter.

Forward Industries stock recently traded at $4.70 on Nasdaq, up more than 10% in the past day, with an intraday high of $5.04 and volume above 3 million shares (per Google Finance data).

Forward Industries said the increase represented 36% annualized SOL-per-share growth. The update comes as the company continues to build its Solana treasury while earlier filings show how crypto price moves have shaped its reported results.

Forward Industries expands Solana holdings

In a July 1 company release, Forward Industries said it sold 93,642 common shares through its At The Market offering during fiscal Q3. The company said it used public market capital in a way that raised SOL per share for existing shareholders.