Why Robinhood Invested in Lighter

Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com

Thank you to our sponsors!

• Figure

• Uniswap

Robinhood is moving toward offering a full suite of crypto services and overhauling the infrastructure underpinning its stock trading services with blockchain technology. 

In this episode of Unchained, Robinhood Crypto Senior Vice President and General Manager Johann Kerbrat discusses the company's “super app ambitions” and potential competition with Coinbase. 

He also discusses the platform's entry into prediction markets and resistance from state regulators. Could state opposition to prediction markets drive businesses offshore?

Plus, will tokenized stocks make IPOs redundant? And where are we in the crypto market?

Guest:

• Johann Kerbrat, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Robinhood Crypto

• Previous appearances on Unchained:

• Why Robinhood, a TradFi Hub, Is Growing Its Crypto Business Globally

• Unchained:

• Robinhood Is Building Its Own Layer 2 Blockchain

• Perps Are Coming to America. Will Coinbase and Robinhood Win the Race?

• OpenAI Says Robinhood’s Stock Tokens Are Not Equity

• Coinbase Expands Into Tokenized Stocks and Prediction Markets

• Coinbase Launches Digital Token Sales Platform

• Coinbase Buys Cobie’s ‘Up Only’ NFT and Echo in $375 Million Deal

Timestamps:

🚀 00:00 Introduction 

🤔 1:33 What drove Robinhood's 3x year-on-year crypto revenue growth in Q3?

💡 5:34 Why Johann says we are still far from a bear market

💥 7:49 How the crypto users on Robinhood have evolved overtime

⚔️ 11:08 How Robinhood views competition from Coinbase

🧏 14:30 What Robinhood's Susquehanna deal for prediction markets brings to the table

👀 18:48 Could state opposition to prediction markets drive businesses offshore?

💡 20:34 Why Robinhood chose Ethereum over Solana

🤔 25:19 When will Robinhood bring perps to other jurisdictions?

📍 27:00 Why Robinhood chose to invest in Lighter over the competition

⚠️ 29:17 Why Johann says the crypto industry needs to build resilience after 10/10

📈 33:50 How Robinhood's tokenized stock offering might come to the US

💥 39:16 Why Johann says private companies would eventually seek retail participation

💡 43:26 What tokenization of physical assets would look like

💫 47:12 How tokenization could impact the financial lives of users

🚨 49:18 Why Johann thinks crypto founders should talk less about the protocol

🧏‍♂️ 51:19 How Robinhood is looking to combine with DeFi 

🤔 53:03 Will Robinhood follow Coinbase to launch an ICO platform?

⚡️ 54:22 Why Robinhood is expanding to Indonesia

🗣 56:28 What being a “super app” means for Robinhood 

🔮 58:11 Johann reveals his crypto predictions for 2026

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices