Robinhood Chain Takes on NYSE/Nasdaq | Robinhood Crypto GM Johann Kerbrat

Bankless

Tech News, Technology, News

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Robinhood isn’t just adding another crypto feature—it’s assembling a new exchange stack: stock tokens, an Ethereum L2 built for real-world assets, and a wallet that can plug into DeFi. Johann Kerbrat (GM of Crypto at Robinhood) joins Bankless to unpack what “24/7 markets” actually requires, why liquidity and routing are the hidden battleground for tokenized equities, and how “Certified by Robinhood” could become a distribution moat for onchain apps. Along the way, they compare Robinhood’s approach to tokenization with the NYSE’s 24/7 tokenized platform plans and Nasdaq’s tokenized securities proposal, and dig into what U.S. regulatory clarity would need to unlock stock tokens stateside. Subscribe for more on the new financial rails being built in real time. --- 🚀ROCKETPOOL https://bankless.cc/Rocketpool --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT https://bankless.cc/bitget 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://bankless.cc/TDR-pro 💰ICO WATCH | UPCOMING PUBLIC TOKEN SALES https://bankless.cc/ico-watch --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 3:43 Is Robinhood Building a New Exchange? 4:45 Robinhood Chain testnet: what it enables for builders 9:17 What’s actually unique about this L2 10:44 “Certified by Robinhood” explained 12:52 Mainnet timing & NYSE/Nasdaq vs Robinhood tokenization approaches 16:34 Stock tokens today: EU access, U.S. questions 18:16 The liquidity problem (and how routing fixes it) 21:28 What tokenized equities unlock beyond trading 23:23 Robinhood Wallet’s role in the stack 24:57 The CLARITY Act: what matters to Robinhood 30:49 Strategic bets: Talos, Bitstamp, and going institutional 38:51 Lighter + perps: DeFi vs CeFi (and the U.S. CFTC wall) 43:21 What’s next: “one ecosystem” + prediction markets 45:13 Builder call-to-action --- RESOURCES Johann Kerbrat https://x.com/JohannKerbrat --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bankless Nation, today on the show, I have Johan Kerrott from Robin Hood. He's the general
0:04.1	manager of Robin Hood, and they are announcing something pretty cool, the Robin Hood chain
0:08.0	TestNet. I think we'll probably get the mainnet live sometime this year, but today we're
0:12.5	getting the details of Robin Hood TestNet and everything that comes with it. And so I was able to
0:16.0	ask Johan a bunch of questions about what the role of the Robin Hood TestNet is in the Robin Hood
0:21.7	ecosystem. My idea for this is this is their attempt to go toe to toe with NASDAQ and the New York
0:29.1	Stock Exchange. We know, we've talked about this on Bankless before, we know the NASDAQ and the New York
0:33.4	Stock Exchange has their own tokenization blockchain strategy.
0:41.2	Each one is a little bit different from each other, but they are going into the world of blockchain and doing the blockchain, not Bitcoin thing, trying to use blockchain technology
0:45.4	and tokenization to just improve the quality of their product.
0:49.8	Robin is doing the same thing, but in a manner that I think is just more aligned with what we care
0:55.5	about here on bank lists. They're doing it with an open ecosystem on Robin Hood chain on Ethereum
1:00.2	Layer 2, a permissionless chain, unlike NASDAQ, unlike the New York Stock Exchange. Of course,
1:06.4	NASDAQ, New York Stock Exchange, they put equities on their chain and they just are using
1:10.3	blockchain technology to boost what tokenized equities can do. Well, Robin Hood is putting tokenized
1:16.8	equities on Robin Hood chain, again, in the open manner. So really aligned with what I think is
1:22.2	special and cool about public permissionless blockchains. And so I was able to ask Johan about
1:26.3	the whole strategy and the launch of Robin Hood
1:28.5	chain and all the details around the test net.
1:30.8	But I also got the opportunity to talk to him about a bunch of other things as well, especially
1:34.4	these, what was uniquely curious to me is these strategic investments that Robin Hood makes.
1:39.3	They made a strategic investment into lighter, the layer two perplex on Ethereum, and also Talon,
	...

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