Robinhood may enter the L2 market, and the tokenization of US stocks will usher in new players

Author: TechFlow

As USD stablecoins gradually attract market attention, companies inside and outside the crypto are beginning to view US stocks as their next target.

In late May, US crypto exchange Kraken announced it would offer tokenized popular US stocks to non-US customers; on June 18, Coinbase's Chief Legal Officer Paul Gruwal revealed that the company is seeking SEC approval to launch a "tokenized stock" service.

US stock tokenization is gradually becoming an explicit business.

Now, this business may have a new player - the famous American online brokerage, the "retail investor alliance", and a key force in the movement to defeat Wall Street - Robinhood.

Previously, two people familiar with Robinhood told Bloomberg that they are developing a blockchain-based platform that allows retail investors in Europe to trade US stocks.

According to sources, the technical solution for this platform might be Arbitrum or Solana, with the specific partner still undecided and the protocol not yet finalized.

This news can be interpreted in at least two ways.

First, Robinhood directly integrates Arbitrum L2 in this new platform allowing European users to trade US stocks, as its blockchain trading base layer;

Second, and more likely, Robinhood plans to use Arbitrum's Arbitrum Chains feature to develop its own dedicated L2 chain based on Arbitrum's technology stack (Rollup protocol, EVM compatibility, etc.).

Regardless of the final scenario, market sentiment has been stirred.

This means that for the US stock tokenization business, Robinhood might create its own L2, which would be more conducive to on-chain settlement and dedicated operations.

At the upcoming EthCC in Cannes on the 30th, Robinhood will also announce an important declaration at 17:00 local time (23:00 Beijing time), which has led to speculation about its L2 and US stock tokenization business.

Meanwhile, A.J. Warner, Chief Strategy Officer of Offchain Labs behind Arbitrum, will also attend the conference, giving more imagination to a potential joint announcement.

ARB, which has been slightly dull in price recently, once broke through a 20% increase in 24 hours, ranking among the top in cryptocurrency gains.

More suggestively, Robinhood's European X account replied "Stay tuned" under a conference agenda discussion post, and combined with Bloomberg's report about providing US stock trading to the European region, the possibility of an official announcement of this feature has become higher.

Ethereum L1 has lost a significant amount of initiative in the current ecosystem of numerous L2s, with performance being secondary to its fundamental marginalization and channelization. It's easy to create a specialized L2, but reviving Ethereum's former glory is challenging.

We may get the answer to how Robinhood will ultimately choose during today's ETHcc.