Original article by Nina Bambysheva, Forbes

Original translation: Luffy, Foresight News

The presence of cryptocurrency financiers at the Château d'Azur might seem out of place. The 25-acre Belle Époque-style villa sits on a hillside overlooking the Bay of Cannes. But on a sunny June afternoon, Robinhood booked the legendary estate, famous for its role in Hitchcock's "To Catch a Thief," for a crypto-themed event called "To Catch a Token"—planned by Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood's head of crypto, who lives on the Côte d'Azur.

The event opened with a cinematic atmosphere: a video showed Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev driving a 1962 midnight blue Jaguar E-Type convertible along the esplanade, a nod to Cary Grant's iconic appearance in "To Catch a Thief." After the video, Tenev appeared in person—wearing a white pinstripe Tom Ford suit, a black and white striped scarf, and clutching a green briefcase—to greet over 300 invited guests, including Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and executives from financial giants like JPMorgan Chase, Mastercard, and Stripe.

This dramatic debut wasn't without purpose. Robinhood's stock price has reached a record high of $111 per share, up 384% from last year, bringing its market capitalization to nearly $98 billion , making it one of the world's 250 most valuable companies. By 2024, Robinhood is projected to generate $1.4 billion in profits, nearly $3 billion in revenue, and $255 billion in assets under management, with net deposit growth reaching 44% over the past year. In terms of active or fully funded accounts, Robinhood, with 26 million, is rapidly catching up to Charles Schwab (37 million), making it three times the size of Morgan Stanley's E-Trade and six times that of Merrill Lynch. Tenev's personal wealth has increased sixfold in a single year, reaching $6.1 billion.

Cover photo by Vlad Tenev by Guerin Blask for Forbes

The 38-year-old CEO is constantly busy. In late May, he spoke to 35,000 Bitcoin supporters in Las Vegas about how cryptocurrencies will further disrupt global finance through "tokenization," converting assets like stocks, bonds, and real estate into digital tokens that can be traded 24/7 on blockchain networks. He then headed to Tampa for the Registered Investment Advisor Conference, and a few weeks later, he appeared at Robinhood's swanky Manhattan offices to deliver his annual shareholder speech. "New York this week, then France, then the UK," he quickly reported, then listed Robinhood's dozen or so offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia. "I have to visit each of them at least once a year, and they're constantly growing."

Despite Tenev's youthful appearance, with a hairstyle and goatee that evoke Errol Flynn's 1938 Robin Hood, he now speaks like the mature CEO of a major financial conglomerate. This fledgling brokerage firm, which emerged from the aftermath of the global financial crisis and the Occupy Wall Street movement, has grown up and aims to become a one-stop financial services provider for "digital natives"—a generation more accustomed to digital transactions. According to Cerulli Associates, these individuals will inherit an estimated $124 trillion in assets over the next 20 years, much of it from their baby boomer parents.

A week before the "elaborate" unveiling of the French estate, Tenev explained the purpose of events like these at Robinhood: "We're launching new products very quickly, and this is a great way to show the world what we're doing. We have to think clearly about the story we want to tell at each event, and it's also very motivating for the team."

This castle event marked Robinhood's first international crypto-themed event, where several major announcements were made. Starting in July, Robinhood will allow European users to trade blockchain-based "equity tokens"—non-voting derivatives that track hundreds of US stocks and ETFs, including private tech giants like SpaceX and OpenAI. Trading will be commission-free and available 24/7. For US users, Robinhood is also offering cryptocurrency staking, allowing users to lock crypto assets like Ethereum and Solana in a blockchain network to earn returns. In June, Robinhood acquired the Luxembourg-based crypto exchange Bitstamp for $200 million, unlocking perpetual futures trading on Bitcoin and Ethereum for European users. All of this is powered by the blockchain Robinhood is currently building.

“Our industry is at a critical inflection point,” Tenev told the VIPs cooling off on the Riviera. “We have the opportunity to prove to the world what we’ve always believed: that cryptocurrencies are more than just speculative assets; they have the potential to become the backbone of the global financial system. We want to make that possibility a certainty.”

To understand Tenev's ambition, it's helpful to first review Robinhood's turbulent past. In 2013, Stanford physics and mathematics graduates Tenev and co-founder Baiju Bhatt saw a disruptive opportunity. After graduation, they developed high-frequency trading software for large hedge funds and witnessed firsthand their immense demand for trading volume. Retail investors, accustomed to paying $10-25 per trade commissions at brokerages like Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and Merrill Lynch, could become a significant source of trading volume. So, they created a mobile trading app for beginners, eliminating account minimums and commissions, knowing that hedge funds paid to execute retail orders. They promoted this zero-commission platform with the slogan "Democratizing Investing," and its launch was met with comparable popularity to a popular video game.

Before Robinhood launched, the backlist on the Apple App Store already had nearly 1 million users. By September 2019, established brokerages like Charles Schwab, E-Trade, Fidelity, and TD Ameritrade (acquired by Schwab in 2020) had eliminated commissions, making the emerging company's model the new industry standard.

However, the victory was short-lived. In early 2021, a surge in app trading volume, fueled by pandemic lockdowns and government stimulus measures, triggered a regulatory storm amid the "GameStop meme stock frenzy." Driven by the Reddit forum WallStreetBets, GameStop's stock price soared, seemingly disregarding its dismal fundamentals. This unprecedented volatility triggered massive collateral demands from Robinhood's clearinghouse, forcing Tenev to suspend buying of the stock on its platform. This was followed by user outrage, public criticism, and congressional inquiries, including questions surrounding the suicide of a young Robinhood options trader.

But this incident exposed the outdated, opaque, and inefficient nature of U.S. stock trading, and it also made clear what Tenev had been thinking about: "Can we really put stocks on the blockchain? I believe its value lies in enabling 24/7 stock trading ."

Robinhood initially tried to innovate the legacy system by partnering with alternative trading platforms like West Palm Beach-based Blue Ocean to extend trading hours, but those efforts hit a wall. “I didn’t realize how hard it would be to change this core infrastructure because so many things depended on it. Maybe I was a little naive,” Tenev admits.

Meanwhile, his crypto chief, Kerbrat, was exploring other avenues of implementation. As US regulators under the Biden administration took a cautious approach to digital assets, the team moved their experiments to Europe, where clear regulations already existed. "Sometimes, it's easier to build new infrastructure from scratch. We believe this technology is adaptable to any jurisdiction, and over time, we can make it a global reality," Tenev said, knowing that as millions of investors around the world began trading US stocks like Meme coins, his lucrative trading volume machine could grow exponentially.

While Kerbrat was deeply involved in European tokenization, Robinhood was reinventing itself in other areas. In March 2024, Bhatt, now worth $6.7 billion (he stepped down as co-CEO in 2020), exited the company to pursue a career in space solar power. Despite the ongoing lawsuits stemming from the GameStop incident, Tenev was busy launching a series of new products: individual retirement accounts (IRAs), high-yield savings accounts, a credit card offering 3% cash back (with a 3 million-person waitlist), a private banking service with on-demand cash delivery, and complex options tools previously available only to institutional investors. In the words of Brett Knoblauch, managing director of Cantor Fitzgerald, Robinhood had become "a mousetrap that can trade anything."

This intense release rhythm aligns with the designer's own. The Bulgarian-born CEO, reflecting, spreads his palms with a gesture of resignation: "I just wake up, work, eat, exercise, and sleep. My wife doesn't like it when I say this, but I actually prefer to integrate work into my personal life."

Tenev says that during Robinhood's explosive growth, he didn't fully anticipate the deep resonance between accessible trading and the entrepreneurial spirit. At a private event in Miami last year, the company's top users included not only self-taught day traders but also small business owners and startup founders whose approach to the market mirrored the DIY spirit they had brought to their companies. He believes this fierce drive for independence is Robinhood's true moat: "Entrepreneurs don't trust experts to handle things for them; they prefer to figure things out on their own." Robinhood was designed for them: a dashboard where they can manage their own money without gatekeepers.

Tenev plans to lead the next generation of investors in three phases. First, he aims to capture the active trader market, which, judging by Robinhood's current strong performance, offers immediate returns on investment. In the medium term (approximately five years), he aims to cover all of a user's financial needs, from credit cards to cryptocurrencies, mortgages, and IRAs. Finally, he aims to build the world's premier financial ecosystem, likely anchored by Robinhood's blockchain. "The scale will be much larger than the first two phases," Tenev said, preparing for the next day's shareholder meeting. "The opportunity will start slowly but compound over time."

Tokenization may be Robinhood's long-term goal, but its core crypto business is already a formidable force. In 2024, Robinhood's crypto-related revenue reached $626 million, a significant increase from $135 million the previous year, accounting for more than a third of its total trading revenue. In the first quarter of 2025, crypto-related revenue reached $252 million. "They are now taking market share from Coinbase in the United States," said Rob Hadick, general partner at the crypto venture capital firm Dragonfly. Cantor Fitzgerald's Knoblauch pointed out that in May 2025, Robinhood's crypto trading volume surged 36% month-on-month, while Coinbase's volume declined. He acknowledged that Coinbase still dominates the institutional market, "they have a wider range of services and a custodial business," but after Robinhood completed its acquisition of Bitstamp in June, it acquired 5,000 institutional accounts and licenses in Europe and Asia.

Tenev and Kerbrat insist that Robinhood's model is fundamentally different from that of crypto exchanges like Coinbase. "In this industry, people are always telling you this (blockchain) has advantages over that, but they forget that ultimately, the end user is the key. We don't want to build technology just for the sake of talking about it; we want to build something that people can use every day and see as a better alternative to the traditional financial system," Kerbrat said.

Micky Malka, founder of Ribbit Capital and an early investor in Robinhood, Coinbase, and its European competitor, Revolut, believes that focusing on the Coinbase vs. Robinhood competition is shortsighted: “To me, the question over the next 10 years is how much market share they can take away from the incumbents, not how they fight each other. ”

Knoblauch estimates that Robinhood, with $255 billion in assets under management, will overtake Interactive Brokers ($665 billion in client assets) within seven years, followed by Charles Schwab. He says Robinhood has been gaining market share for 14 consecutive months.

Tenev is also seriously diversifying. The original Robinhood was criticized for its over-reliance on "payment for order flow" (PFOF), a model that relied on high trading volume and the most aggressive hedge funds on Wall Street. Today, trading still accounts for 56% of revenue (down from 77% in 2021), but according to John Todaro, managing director of Needham & Company, Robinhood has 10 business lines that are expected to generate more than $100 million in revenue each within two years.

Take Robinhood Gold, for example. Initially priced at $5 per month or $50 per year, this premium service, which offers margin trading, professional research, and extra balance earnings, is now the core of Tenev’s robust subscription model. Current benefits include a 4% yield on brokerage cash, interest-free margin loans of up to $1,000, and a 3% match on IRA contributions. The new “Robinhood Gold Credit Card,” which offers 3% cash back on all purchases, has been issued to its first 200,000 customers. “If we reach 15 million Gold members, subscription revenue will be close to $1 billion. This adds recurring revenue to a very cyclical business, diversifying the overall revenue base,” says Knoblauch.

Then there's Robinhood Strategies. This "hybrid" robo-advisory product from Tenev targets the $60 trillion US wealth management market dominated by established firms like Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. With an annual management fee of 0.25% and a cap of $250 for Gold membership, clients receive a customized portfolio of stocks and ETFs managed by algorithms and rebalanced with human oversight. Since its launch in March, this disruptive platform has attracted $350 million in capital.

Tenev described his company's approach to developing new products as scientific, empowering small teams within Robinhood to test hypotheses with customers, who provide immediate feedback on its initiatives on social networks.

"A lot of companies just look at what others are doing and copy it, kind of as a form of competitive benchmarking. We launch products or new features because we like to experiment," Tenev says. Robinhood's recently launched home mortgage—a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 6.1% with $500 in waived closing costs—is the result of a secret online pilot the company began in June. "It went viral on social media. I later tweeted about the pilot, and it was probably one of my most popular tweets of the year."

Tenev's tokenization efforts in Europe are somewhat like a moonshot. Europe has adopted many of the crypto regulations still being debated in the US Congress, becoming their "laboratory." "Our experiment in Europe is: What would it look like if we rebuilt Robinhood entirely within the cryptocurrency ecosystem? We'll then assess the pros and cons and bring the best of this EU app to the US and globally," he said.

Currently, the scale of stock tokenization is still small. xStocks, a subsidiary of Swiss-based Backed Finance, has tokenized over 60 publicly traded stocks (including well-known companies like Apple and Amazon) and trades them on major crypto exchanges like Kraken and Bybit, but its daily trading volume is less than $10 million. There are several structural issues: these tokens are derivatives backed by off-chain assets, which means that routine corporate actions (such as dividends, stock splits, or other events that may occur during weekends) can disrupt collateral calculations and trigger unexpected liquidations.

“Market makers have to take on this risk, and how do they hedge when the market is closed? If they do, they’ll have to widen spreads and charge users high fees,” said Hadick of Dragonfly. “Right now, the off-chain infrastructure is underdeveloped, and the on-chain products are immature… I worry that these early products will end up being duds.”

But that hasn't stopped others from jumping in. In June, the Winklevoss brothers' Gemini launched tokenized trading of Strategy shares for EU users. Coinbase is reportedly seeking SEC approval to offer tokenized shares, and even Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, which manages $12.5 trillion in assets, is urging the SEC to approve the tokenization of stocks and bonds. Robinhood has gone further: in addition to stocks, it is also tokenizing private companies and has announced plans to tokenize shares of OpenAI and SpaceX, both of which are currently valued at over $300 billion. OpenAI has publicly disavowed Robinhood's products, emphasizing that these tokens are not authorized or endorsed by the company. "No founder wants their equity to circulate on the chain and be held by strangers," Hadick warned.

Tenev, facing skeptics, is a seasoned veteran. "It's a little rough around the edges right now," he admits. "I don't think brokers want us to easily pull their stock out. But what happens if it becomes self-custodial? When you can tokenize and self-custody, you become independent of the broker's infrastructure—just like you can use a crypto wallet on MetaMask, Robinhood, or Coinbase. In the future, you'll be able to seamlessly hold stocks through any interface and trade them in almost any scenario."

This is precisely why Tenev is obsessed with making Robinhood the "only financial tool" for young users . In retail financial services, the power of inertia is second only to compound interest. Users are inherently "sticky," but Tenev knows that as trillions of dollars in baby boomer assets are passed on to digitally native generations, financial giants like Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and Merrill Lynch are becoming vulnerable. In fact, he believes his biggest competitors aren't Coinbase or Fidelity, but companies like Anthropic and OpenAI: "They move the fastest and do the most interesting things. But it's too early to say ChatGPT will disrupt the financial industry."

Malka, an early Robinhood investor (whom Tenev calls a mentor and whose firm has profited over $5 billion from the investment, according to Forbes), is a huge Tenev fan: "The leader of Robinhood is under 40, extremely AI-native, understands the future of AI, understands tokenization, and can combine these two strategies in a way that few others can. We are at the dawn of the 'internet moment' for money—anyone in the world can invest in the same product. Credit approval will be better, and loans will be cheaper. All of this will happen."

Tenev believes that Robinhood will eventually deploy AI agents to replicate and optimize the services of high-net-worth family offices, putting "a family office in your pocket."

AI is so central to Tenev's vision that the former mathematics PhD candidate recently co-founded and serves as chairman of the AI startup Harmonic, running it alongside Tudor Achim, a computer scientist who previously led the self-driving company Helm.ai. In July, Harmonic secured $100 million in Series B funding from Kleiner Perkins, Paradigm, and Sequoia Capital, valuing the company at $875 million. This "mathematical superintelligence" lab is building an advanced reasoning engine to "ensure accuracy and eliminate illusions"—a valuable capability in an era where AI and money are intertwined.

“It would be amazing if the Riemann Hypothesis, or any of the other big Millennium Problems, could be solved on a mobile app,” Tenev mused. “I don’t want to just watch; I want to be an active participant.”

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