Robinhood is making a big statement to the financial services community.
The trading platform said Monday it has launched US stock and ETF tokens in the European Union at an event in Cannes, France. European Robinhood customers will have access to more than 200 US stock and ETF tokens. Stock token holders will also receive dividend payments directly in their Robinhood app.
With tokenized stocks, the company’s European app transitions from a crypto-only app to a broader offering where customers can invest in stocks and ETFs.
Stock tokens will initially be issued on the blockchain player Arbitrum. Robinhood said tokenized stocks will soon be facilitated by its layer two blockchain. It said the technology, currently in development, will support 24/7 trading.
Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev will be live on Yahoo Finance today at 3:30 p.m. ET to reveal more details behind the plan.
Using blockchain technology, tokenization is the process of creating a digital representation of a real asset. It essentially allows investors the ability to diversify their holdings by, for example, fractional ownership of an asset like a stock, art, or real estate.
Financial services giants such as BlackRock (BLK) and Franklin Templeton have adopted tokenization for money market funds. BlackRock co-founder and CEO Larry Fink has been a vocal supporter of tokenization, as it democratizes investing access, shareholder voting, and yield.
“The world’s money moves through plumbing built when trading floors still shouted orders and fax machines felt revolutionary,” Fink said in his annual shareholder letter earlier this year.
Consultancy McKinsey estimates that tokenized market capitalization could reach about $2 trillion by 2030, excluding cryptocurrencies in bitcoin and stablecoins.
Other key product reveals at the Monday event for Robinhood include crypto perpetual futures in the EU.
The company has been aggressive in reinventing itself from a pure-play stock trading platform founded by Tenev and Baiju Bhatt in 2013.
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In March, the company released Robinhood Banking to provide access to traditional checking and savings accounts.
Robinhood Strategies now serves as a wealth management service. Its premium Gold subscribers pay a 0.25% annual fee, capped at $250.
It also debuted a prediction markets hub in its app this year. The contracts allow users to wager on everything from what the fed funds rate could be to NCAA tournament games.
The platform provider also debuted futures and index options trading last year.
