Inside Robinhood’s Crypto-Fueled Plan For World Domination

Forbes

First Vlad Tenev blew up the brokerage industry’s fee model. Now, thanks in part to his full-on crypto embrace, he has increased his fortune sixfold to $6 billion as he embarks on a global financial services takeover with tokenized stocks, AI-powered investing and a bid to own the rails of the looming $124 trillion generational wealth transfer.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninabambysheva/2025/07/29/inside-robinhoods-crypto-fueled-plan-for-world-domination/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, Inside Robinhood's Crypto-Fueled Plan for World Domination

00:05Crypto financiers might seem unlikely guests at the Chateau de la Croix de Garde,

00:13a 25-acre villa commanding the Bay of Cannes from its hillside perch. Yet on a sun-drenched

00:19June afternoon, the company Robinhood commandeered the storied estate, famous for its star turn in

00:26Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief, for what the company called To Catch a Token, a crypto field

00:31day conceived by longtime Cote d'Azur resident Johan Kerbrot, the firm's head of crypto.

00:38The spectacle opened with a cinematic flourish, a video of Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev

00:44driving a midnight blue 1962 Jaguar E-Type convertible along the corniche, an homage to

00:50Cary Grant's entrance in Hitchcock's film. When the reel faded, Tenev stepped out in real

00:56time, decked out in a pinstriped white Tom Ford suit, black and white ascot, green attaché case

01:02in hand, to greet an invitation-only crowd of more than 300 that included Ethereum creator Vitalik

01:09Buterin and top brass from financial heavyweights JP Morgan, MasterCard, and Stripe.

01:15The theatrics are warranted. As of late July, Robinhood's stock is trading at $111 a share,

01:22an all-time high 384% above last year's levels, vaulting the brokerage firm's market cap to nearly

01:30$98 billion and into the ranks of the world's 250 most valuable companies. In 2024, it generated

01:37$1.4 billion in profit on nearly $3 billion in revenue, and now holds $255 billion in assets,

01:46expanding at a 44% net deposit growth rate over the past year. In terms of active or funded accounts,

01:54Robinhood, with $26 million, is rapidly gaining share on Schwab, with $37 million, and is three

02:01times larger than Morgan Stanley's E-Trade and six times larger than Merrill Lynch. Tenev's personal

02:07fortune has jumped six-fold in a year to $6.1 billion. The 38-year-old chief executive operates

02:15in perpetual motion. In late May, he was in Las Vegas, preaching to 35,000 Bitcoiners about how

02:22crypto will further disrupt global finance through tokenization, the process of converting assets like

02:28stocks, bonds, and real estate into digital tokens that can be traded 24-7 on blockchain networks.

02:34From there, he bounces to Tampa for a conference for registered investment advisors, and a few

02:40weeks later, he's in Robinhood's posh Manhattan offices for its annual shareholder address.

02:46Despite his boyish looks, including a hair bob and goatee reminiscent of Errol Flynn's 1938 Robinhood,

02:53Tenev these days sounds very much like the seasoned chief executive of a giant financial conglomerate.

02:59The upstart brokerage that blossomed from the ashes of the global financial crisis

03:04and Occupy Wall Street movement has grown up. It wants to be a one-stop financial firm for tech

03:10native generations who prefer transacting digitally. Within the next 20 years, according to Cirilli

03:15Associates, they are expected to receive some $124 trillion in assets, mostly from their boomer

03:22parents. The get-together at the Chateau marks Robinhood's first-ever international and crypto-focused

03:28event, dense with announcements. Starting in July, Robinhood has allowed European users to trade

03:35blockchain-based stock tokens, non-voting derivatives that track hundreds of U.S. stocks and ETFs,

03:41including privately-owned tech juggernauts, SpaceX, and OpenAI. The trading will be commission-free,

03:4724 hours a day, five days a week. For U.S. customers, crypto-staking, the practice of locking digital

03:55assets to blockchain networks like Ethereum or Solana to earn income, will finally be permitted.

04:00Robinhood's June acquisition of Luxembourg-based crypto-exchange Bitstamp for $200 million will

04:07unlock perpetual futures with no expiration on Bitcoin and Ether for continental customers.

04:13To underpin it all, Robinhood is building its own blockchain.

04:18At the Chateau event, Tenev told the VIPs fanning away the Riviera heat,

04:23We as an industry find ourselves at an important precipice. We have a chance to prove to the world

04:29what we've believed all along, that crypto is much more than a speculative asset. It has the

04:34potential to become the backbone of the global financial system. We are hoping to turn that

04:39from a possibility to an inevitability. For full coverage, check out Nina Bambasheva's piece

04:46on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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