Robinhood Markets, Inc. (HOOD)

Robinhood reported record revenue of $1.42 billion for the third quarter of 2026 on 27 October, up 12 percent from a year earlier 1. Net income fell 14 percent to $476 million, as operating expenses rose 16 percent and the tax charge nearly doubled 1.

What customers trade has shifted 1. Event contracts, trades on the outcome of events such as games or elections, brought in $173 million, more than six times a year earlier, while crypto revenue fell 55 percent to $120 million 1. The quarterly report blames fewer people trading crypto, smaller trades and lower rebates from the market makers that fill crypto orders 2.

Net interest revenue fell 9 percent to $415 million, on less securities lending and lower short-term rates 1. Customers kept bringing money: net deposits were $15.7 billion in the quarter, and platform assets reached $396 billion 1. Finance chief Shiv Verma said October deposits had already topped $13 billion, including $6 billion from the Dell family's gift to Trump Accounts 1.

The open questions are crypto and the courts 122. Verma said on the call that crypto and equity spreads looked "a little bit tighter" early in the fourth quarter, and several states are fighting Robinhood's sports event contracts in court 122.

Robinhood was founded in 2013 and became the first U.S. retail broker to offer commission-free stock trading with no account minimums, a model the rest of the industry then adopted 23. It earns most of its trading revenue from market makers, the firms that fill customers' orders and pay to receive them, a practice called payment for order flow 3.

The pandemic brought a rush of new investors 5. Revenue rose from $958 million in 2020 to $1,815 million in 2021, and Robinhood's shares began trading on Nasdaq on 29 July 2021 5. The 2021 net loss of $3.69 billion included $2.05 billion from marking to market convertible notes and warrants issued that February 5.

In early 2021 Robinhood had temporarily stopped customers from buying certain securities, and it faced claims that the decision was influenced by market makers 5. FINRA fined it $57 million in June 2021 over misleading information, outages and options approvals 14.

Then trading cooled 5. Revenue fell 25 percent to $1.36 billion in 2022, because the market environment cut the number of traders and their volumes in every asset class 5. Robinhood cut about 330 jobs in April 2022 and about 780 more in August, 23 percent of its staff at the time 5.

In 2023 revenue rose 37 percent to $1.87 billion, mostly because higher interest rates lifted net interest revenue by $505 million 6. The net loss narrowed to $0.54 billion, after a $485 million charge for cancelling the founders' 2021 stock awards 6. In July 2023 Robinhood bought X1, a credit card company it renamed Robinhood Credit 7.

In 2024 revenue rose 58 percent to $2.95 billion, and crypto revenue alone grew $491 million as more customers traded crypto and traded more each 7. Net income was $1.41 billion, helped by a $369 million tax benefit from releasing a valuation allowance, a reserve against the value of past losses 7.

In 2025 revenue rose 52 percent to $4.47 billion and net income 33 percent to $1.88 billion 3. Options, crypto and stocks all grew, and prediction markets helped lift other trading revenue by $218 million 3. Robinhood bought TradePMR, a platform for independent advisers, in February 2025 and the crypto exchange Bitstamp in June 2025 2.

In 2026 the business leaned further into prediction markets and new kinds of accounts 2. Rothera, a joint venture with the trading firm Susquehanna (SIG), bought 90 percent of the exchange MIAXdx in January 2026, and in April Robinhood became broker and trustee for the government's Trump Accounts 2. It bought WonderFi, a Canadian crypto firm, on 1 June for about $178 million, and in June cut about 10 percent of its staff 28.

Stocks and options

The Robinhood app and the desktop platform Robinhood Legend let customers trade U.S. stocks, ETFs and their options without a commission 314. Options brought in $1,123 million in 2025, a quarter of revenue, and $399 million in the third quarter of 2026, up 31 percent 31. Stocks added $302 million in 2025 and $121 million in the quarter 31.

Options contracts traded rose 48 percent to a record 905 million in the quarter 1. NerdWallet's Sam Taube rates Robinhood 4.5 on a five-star scale, praising a "streamlined interface" but noting "no mutual funds" and little third-party research 14. StockBrokers.com's Jessica Inskip calls it "a good fit for the investor who does most of their investing on a phone", though website research "lags" 15.

Crypto, Bitstamp and Robinhood Chain

Customers buy and sell crypto in the app, and Bitstamp, bought in June 2025, runs an exchange for institutions and retail traders 2. Crypto brought in $901 million in 2025, about a fifth of revenue, but $120 million in the third quarter of 2026, down 55 percent 31. Crypto trading volume fell 38 percent to $50 billion in the quarter 1.

In July 2026 Robinhood launched Robinhood Chain, an open blockchain for financial services and tokenized assets, and Stock Tokens, tokens that track U.S. stocks 2. In its first quarter the chain carried over $80 billion of trading on decentralized exchanges and over $50 million of fees, the company said 1.

Prediction markets and Rothera

Event contracts let customers "put a few dollars on the Fed or a ballgame", as StockBrokers.com puts it 15. They brought in $433 million in the first nine months of 2026, against $40 million a year earlier, and 16.4 billion contracts traded in the third quarter 21.

Rothera, the exchange and clearinghouse owned with SIG, passed $100 million of annualized revenue in its first full quarter 1. Robinhood appoints Rothera's chief executive and most of its board but does not run it day to day 2. Verma said on the call that Robinhood had received an initial 1 percent stake in crypto.com and og.com, rival venues, with no cash outlay 12.

StockBrokers.com names Kalshi and Polymarket as standalone rivals and, on convenience, picks Robinhood over Kalshi for casual bets 15.

Interest on margin, cash and lending

Robinhood also earns interest on margin loans to customers, on customer cash, on its own cash and from lending customers' securities 3. Net interest revenue was $1,514 million in 2025, 34 percent of revenue 3. The margin book, money lent to customers against their holdings, reached a record $22.1 billion in the third quarter 1.

In that quarter margin interest rose to $244 million from $153 million, while securities lending swung to a net cost of $19 million from income of $87 million 2.

Robinhood Gold, the card and banking

Gold is a subscription at $5 a month that adds a higher rate on uninvested cash, a 3 percent match on retirement contributions, margin and research 163. Subscribers rose 34 percent to a record 5.2 million in the third quarter, and Gold fees brought in $62 million 12.

The Robinhood Gold Card, a credit card issued with Coastal Community Bank, reached 1.3 million customers and over $19 billion of annualized spending 31. Robinhood Banking, also provided through Coastal, held nearly $5 billion of deposits from over 350 thousand customers 31.

Advice, retirement and Trump Accounts

Robinhood Strategies, managed portfolios at a 0.25 percent annual fee, grew to 350 thousand customers and over $2 billion of assets 31. Retirement accounts held a record $36.6 billion 1. TradePMR gives independent advisers custody and portfolio software 2.

As broker and trustee for Trump Accounts, the Treasury's savings accounts for children, Robinhood builds the app, the education and the support, and earns revenue for it 2. Automatic enrollment created accounts for nearly 70 million children, and Michael and Susan Dell pledged $6.25 billion to fund 25 million of them 1.

Robinhood also sponsors listed funds that hold private companies, RVI and RVII, and its June 2026 sales cut its RVI stake from about 52 percent to about 49 percent 2.

Abroad

Robinhood offers brokerage, crypto and futures in the U.K., brokerage and crypto in the EU, and crypto in Canada through WonderFi 2. Its Singapore unit was licensed on 1 July 2026, and Dubai's regulator has authorized a launch the company plans to begin rolling out in 2027 21.

People and offices

Co-founder Vlad Tenev is chief executive, president and chair, and co-founder Baiju Bhatt is a director 3. Shiv Verma, at Robinhood since 2018, became finance chief on 6 February 2026, after Jason Warnick moved to an advisory role 9. Chief technology officer Jeffrey Pinner left on 7 May 2026 17.

Robinhood had about 2,900 full-time employees at the end of 2025, before the June 2026 cut of about 10 percent 38. It leases its offices, the largest being its Menlo Park headquarters and New York 3.

Rivals

The annual report names its rivals by kind: established brokers, fintech firms, banks, crypto exchanges and asset managers, most with longer histories and more capital 3. NerdWallet points readers who want mutual funds or deeper research to brokers such as Fidelity 14.

Problems

Several states treat sports event contracts as illegal gambling, while Robinhood argues federal commodities law overrides them 2. It agreed to stop new sports contracts in Nevada from 1 December 2025, lost a Ninth Circuit appeal in August 2026 and has asked the Supreme Court to hear the case 2. It has also agreed to stop sports contracts in Michigan during the appeals 2.

Individual claims over the early 2021 trading restrictions remain pending in arbitration, and a class action over the IPO documents is still in court 2.

The umbrella, in words

Robinhood Markets is a holding company; its brokers Robinhood Financial and Robinhood Securities, and Robinhood Crypto, Robinhood Derivatives, Robinhood Credit, Robinhood Gold and Robinhood Money are among the subsidiaries its annual report lists 4. The list leaves out smaller subsidiaries, as the rules allow 4.

It wholly owns Bitstamp, TradePMR and, since June 2026, WonderFi, and it controls Rothera, the joint venture with SIG that owns 90 percent of the exchange Rothera E&C 42. It owns about 49 percent of RVI, and by Verma's account an initial 1 percent of crypto.com and og.com 212.

Control sits with the founders: each Class B share carries 10 votes, and in April 2026 Tenev held 26.1 percent of the votes and Bhatt 32.0 percent 311. The largest outside holders were Vanguard, with about 11.9 percent of Class A shares, and BlackRock, with 7.0 percent 11.

Robinhood narrowed its 2026 outlook for adjusted operating expenses and stock-based pay to $2.675 billion to $2.75 billion, from a top end of $2.775 billion 1. The outlook leaves out provisions for credit losses, costs of pending acquisitions and significant regulatory matters 1.

Among the 17 products announced at the HOOD Summit in September were AI trading agents, round-the-clock trading of some U.S. stocks, perpetual futures for eligible U.S. customers and earnings contracts 1. The quarterly report says the company plans to offer those perpetual futures, crypto contracts with no expiry date, with leverage of up to 10x on some contracts 212. On the call Tenev said RVI and RVII had shipped and that more private-market products should follow, calling private markets a new category Robinhood can own 12.

Abroad, the company plans to begin rolling out its products in Dubai in 2027, and Tenev said Singapore would be its Southeast Asia hub 112. In December 2025 it agreed to buy the Indonesian broker PT Buana Capital Sekuritas and the crypto trader PT Pedagang Aset Kripto, deals it then expected to close in the first half of 2026 313. The annual report listed both as pending regulatory approval 3.

The board approved a $1.5 billion share repurchase program in March 2026, which management expects to carry out over about three years 10. In June 2026 Robinhood issued $2.2 billion of convertible notes that pay no interest and mature on 1 October 2029 2. The credit line of its broker Robinhood Securities was renewed for 364 days at $3.25 billion 10.

Verma said October brought year-to-date net deposits to over $68 billion, above the company's 20 percent growth target, and event contract volumes were up about 10 percent early in the quarter 12. Pending in court are the Supreme Court petition from Nevada and appeals in the First and Sixth Circuits 2.