Robinhood (HOOD): Company Overview, Stock, Financials & Latest News

Quick Facts

Item	Detail
Company name	Robinhood Markets, Inc.
Ticker symbol	HOOD (Nasdaq)
Founded	April 2013
IPO date	July 29, 2021
Headquarters	Menlo Park, California
Chairman, CEO and President	Vlad Tenev
Industry	Financial technology, retail brokerage and digital finance
Funded customers	Roughly 27 to 28 million
S&P 500 member	Yes, since September 22, 2025
FY2025 revenue	About $4.47 billion
Dividend	None currently paid
Main competitors	Charles Schwab, Interactive Brokers, Coinbase, SoFi, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley E*TRADE

What Is Robinhood?

Robinhood Markets, Inc. is a financial technology company that operates a mobile first investing and trading platform used by tens of millions of people across the United States and a growing number of international markets. The company built its early reputation on commission free trading of stocks and exchange traded funds at a time when most traditional brokers still charged a fee for every trade.

Since then, Robinhood has expanded far beyond simple stock trading. Its platform now covers options, futures, event contracts tied to real world outcomes, cryptocurrency, retirement accounts, margin lending, cash management, and an AI powered research assistant called Cortex. The company describes its ambition as building a global financial super app, one that can eventually replace a traditional bank, brokerage and crypto exchange with a single account.

Robinhood generates most of its revenue through a mix of transaction based revenue, primarily payment for order flow on stocks, options and crypto trades, net interest income earned on customer cash, margin loans and securities lending, and subscription revenue from its premium Robinhood Gold membership. The company trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker HOOD and has been a member of the S&P 500 index since September 2025.

Company History

Robinhood’s rise from a scrappy startup to an S&P 500 company has included plenty of controversy along the way. Here is the timeline that matters most.

• 2013: Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, who met as physics and math students at Stanford, found Robinhood after growing frustrated with the high commissions and complexity of traditional brokerages. A waitlist for the future app reaches roughly 50,000 signups before launch.
• 2015: Robinhood launches its mobile app publicly, offering commission free stock trading, a novelty in the brokerage industry at the time.
• 2018: The company adds cryptocurrency trading, letting users buy and sell Bitcoin and other digital assets directly inside the app.
• 2020: Robinhood settles with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $65 million over allegations it misled customers about how it made money from order flow. The same year, Baiju Bhatt steps down as co CEO, leaving Vlad Tenev as sole chief executive.
• January 2021: The GameStop and meme stock trading frenzy puts Robinhood at the center of national attention and congressional hearings after the company temporarily restricted trading in certain volatile stocks.
• July 29, 2021: Robinhood completes its initial public offering on the Nasdaq under the ticker HOOD, raising close to $2 billion at an initial valuation of about $32 billion.
• 2023 to 2024: Robinhood returns to consistent GAAP profitability after years of losses, helped by higher interest rates boosting net interest income and steady growth in Robinhood Gold subscribers.
• 2025: Robinhood accelerates its transformation into a broader financial platform, acquiring crypto exchange Bitstamp for about $200 million, launching tokenized stock and ETF trading for European Union customers, introducing prediction markets and event contracts, and joining the S&P 500 index in September.
• Late 2025 into 2026: Robinhood continues expanding through acquisitions including a joint venture to acquire MIAXdx and brokerage assets in Indonesia, while launching new AI driven tools such as Cortex Digests and pushing further into futures, index options and global markets.

Founders

Robinhood was co founded in 2013 by two former Stanford classmates who had already built and sold high frequency trading software before turning their attention to retail investors.

• Vlad Tenev: Born in Bulgaria and raised near Washington DC, Tenev studied mathematics at Stanford and UCLA before co founding Robinhood. He served as co CEO from 2013 and became sole CEO in November 2020. Tenev remains Chairman, CEO and President of Robinhood today, and separately co founded an AI company called Harmonic.
• Baiju Bhatt: A physics graduate of Stanford whose father worked at NASA, Bhatt co founded Robinhood alongside Tenev and served as co CEO until 2020. He later served as Chief Creative Officer through March 2024 and remains on Robinhood’s board of directors. Bhatt has since founded a space technology company called Cowboy Space Corporation.

Before Robinhood, Tenev and Bhatt built two earlier trading technology companies, Celeris and Chronos Research, which sold low latency trading software to financial firms. That background in market infrastructure directly informed how they designed Robinhood’s order routing and payment for order flow business model.

CEO

Robinhood is led by co founder Vlad Tenev, who serves as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President. Tenev has held the top role since November 2020, when Baiju Bhatt stepped down as co CEO ahead of the company’s IPO. Tenev holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Stanford and a master’s degree in mathematics from UCLA, along with FINRA securities licenses.

Under Tenev’s leadership, Robinhood has pushed hard into prediction markets, tokenized assets, crypto and artificial intelligence tools, describing the strategy as building a global financial super app. Robinhood’s finance function is led by Chief Financial Officer Shiv Verma, who has overseen recent capital raises including a 2026 convertible notes offering and an expanded share repurchase program.

Headquarters

Robinhood Markets, Inc. is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley alongside many of the largest names in technology and venture capital. The company maintains additional offices and operations across the United States and has expanded its international footprint significantly, with regulated operations across roughly 30 countries following its European tokenization launch and the acquisition of the globally licensed crypto exchange Bitstamp.

Business Segments

Robinhood does not break its business into product divisions the way a manufacturer might. Instead, it reports revenue across three core categories that reflect how the company actually makes money.

Revenue category	What it includes
Transaction based revenue	Payment for order flow and related revenue from equities, options, cryptocurrency trading, and other transaction revenue such as event contracts and prediction markets
Net interest revenue	Interest earned on customer cash, margin lending, securities lending and cash sweep programs, offset by interest paid to customers
Other revenue	Subscription revenue from Robinhood Gold, along with other smaller revenue streams

Historically Robinhood leaned heavily on transaction based revenue, particularly crypto trading, which made results sensitive to Bitcoin and altcoin price swings. In more recent quarters, net interest revenue and newer transaction categories such as event contracts and index options have become larger and steadier contributors, reducing the company’s dependence on any single revenue source.

Products and Services

Robinhood has expanded from a simple stock trading app into a much broader financial platform.

• Stock and ETF trading: Commission free trading of stocks, exchange traded funds and American depositary receipts, including fractional shares and recurring automatic investments.
• Options and futures: Advanced derivatives trading tools, including futures contracts, index options, and a professional grade platform called Robinhood Legend built for active traders.
• Event contracts and prediction markets: Contracts that let users take positions on real world outcomes, an area management has highlighted as one of the fastest growing parts of the business.
• Cryptocurrency: Trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Solana and other major digital assets, significantly expanded through the 2025 acquisition of crypto exchange Bitstamp.
• Robinhood Gold: A paid subscription tier offering benefits such as higher interest on uninvested cash, access to margin investing, professional research and reduced margin rates, with subscribers reaching roughly 4.3 million by early 2026.
• Retirement accounts: Individual retirement accounts with a matching contribution program designed to compete with traditional retirement providers.
• Robinhood Strategies and advisory services: Managed investment portfolios for customers who prefer a more hands off approach.
• Tokenized assets and global expansion: Tokenized versions of US stocks and ETFs offered to European Union customers, along with early access to tokenized exposure in private companies.
• Cortex: An AI powered assistant that delivers real time market insights and portfolio digests directly inside the app.
• Trump Accounts: Tax advantaged savings accounts for children, funded in part with a government contribution and built in partnership with BNY Mellon.

Revenue Breakdown

Robinhood’s total net revenue reached approximately $4.47 billion for full year 2025, up more than 50 percent from the prior year. That growth has continued into 2026, with total revenue of roughly $1.07 billion in the first quarter of 2026 alone.

Transaction based revenue in more detail

Category	Q1 2026 revenue	Year over year change
Options	$260 million	Up 8 percent
Other transaction revenue, mainly event contracts	$147 million	Up 320 percent
Cryptocurrencies	$134 million	Down 47 percent
Equities	$82 million	Up 46 percent

The steep decline in crypto revenue during the first quarter of 2026 reflects a broader pullback in Bitcoin and altcoin trading volumes after a very strong crypto driven 2025. At the same time, the explosive growth in event contract and prediction market revenue shows how quickly Robinhood has been able to build new revenue lines beyond its original stock trading business.

Financial Performance

Robinhood’s financial turnaround is one of the more notable comeback stories in fintech. After years of losses following its 2021 IPO, the company returned to consistent GAAP profitability in late 2023 and has expanded both revenue and margins sharply since then.

Selected results

Period	Total revenue	Net income	Notes
Full year 2024	$2.95 billion	Positive, smaller base	Base year before the 2025 acceleration
Full year 2025	$4.47 billion	$1.88 billion	Revenue up roughly 52 percent year over year
Q4 2025	$1.28 billion	Strong quarter	Revenue up 27 percent year over year
Q1 2026	$1.07 billion	$346 million	Revenue up 15 percent year over year, net income up 3 percent

Other notable financial details from the first quarter of 2026 include a record margin book of $17.0 billion, up 93 percent year over year, average revenue per user of $157, up 8 percent year over year, and $250 million in share repurchases at an average price of about $81 per share. Robinhood also raised its full year 2026 outlook for operating expenses and stock based compensation, reflecting continued investment in growth initiatives, marketing, and recent acquisitions.

Stock Information

Robinhood trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker HOOD. The stock has been one of the more dramatic performers among large cap fintech names, rising more than 200 percent over a recent twelve month stretch before pulling back significantly in the first half of 2026 as crypto trading cooled.

Metric	Approximate value (early July 2026)
Exchange	Nasdaq
Ticker	HOOD
Recent share price	Around $112
Market capitalization	Roughly $100 billion
Trailing price to earnings ratio	Roughly 50 to 55
Price to sales ratio	Roughly 20 to 37 depending on the trailing period used, well above the stock’s own long run historical average
Average analyst rating	Buy, based on coverage from more than 25 Wall Street analysts
12 month consensus price target	Roughly $100 to $105, with individual targets ranging from about $52 to $155
Index membership	S&P 500, added September 22, 2025

Because a meaningful share of Robinhood’s revenue still comes from crypto trading activity and options volume, the stock tends to be sensitive to Bitcoin price swings, overall market volatility, and how actively retail investors are trading in any given month. Its addition to the S&P 500 in September 2025 triggered a wave of buying from index funds required to hold the stock, which is part of why shares jumped sharply around that announcement.

Dividends

Robinhood does not currently pay a dividend. Instead of returning cash to shareholders through dividends, the company has focused on reinvesting profits into new products, acquisitions such as Bitstamp and MIAXdx, and international expansion, while also running a share repurchase program. Robinhood’s board refreshed its buyback authorization to $1.5 billion in March 2026, and the company had repurchased about $1.2 billion of stock since the program began in the third quarter of 2024.

For income focused investors, HOOD is not a dividend stock. It is better understood as a growth oriented fintech investment tied to trading volumes, crypto market conditions, and the company’s ability to keep expanding into new financial products.

Competitors

Robinhood competes across several overlapping markets, including traditional stock brokerage, options and derivatives trading, cryptocurrency exchanges, and digital banking.

Competitor	What they compete on
Charles Schwab	A much larger, longer established brokerage offering trading, banking and wealth management to a broad customer base
Interactive Brokers	A brokerage popular with active and professional traders, competing directly on options, futures and margin trading
Fidelity Investments	A major privately held brokerage and asset manager competing on commission free trading and retirement accounts
Coinbase	A leading cryptocurrency exchange competing directly with Robinhood’s crypto trading and custody business, and also an S&P 500 member
SoFi Technologies	A digital finance platform competing on banking, investing and lending aimed at a similar younger customer base
Morgan Stanley, through E*TRADE	A legacy online brokerage brand now owned by Morgan Stanley, competing on trading tools and retirement products

Robinhood’s biggest competitive advantage has historically been its simple, mobile first user experience aimed at younger and newer investors, along with its early lead in commission free trading. Its biggest competitive challenges come from larger, better capitalized incumbents on one side and newer, more specialized crypto and prediction market platforms on the other.

Recent News

• Convertible notes offering, June 2026: Robinhood priced and closed $2.2 billion in convertible senior notes due 2029, with part of the proceeds earmarked for share repurchases and capped call transactions intended to limit future dilution.
• First quarter 2026 results, April 2026: Robinhood reported revenue of $1.07 billion, up 15 percent year over year, alongside record margin lending balances and continued growth in Robinhood Gold subscribers, even as crypto revenue fell sharply from the prior year.
• MIAXdx joint venture, closed January 2026: Robinhood completed a joint venture with Susquehanna International Group to acquire MIAXdx, expanding its derivatives and exchange infrastructure capabilities.
• Trump Accounts and Agentic tools: Robinhood launched Trump Accounts, tax advantaged savings accounts for children built with BNY Mellon, alongside new Agentic Trading and Agentic Credit Card tools that allow AI agents to trade and spend through customer sub accounts.
• S&P 500 inclusion, September 2025: Robinhood officially joined the S&P 500, prompting a sharp rally in the stock as index funds were required to add shares to their holdings.
• Bitstamp acquisition, closed 2025: Robinhood completed its roughly $200 million acquisition of Bitstamp, one of the oldest crypto exchanges in the world, significantly expanding its institutional crypto capabilities and global licensing footprint.
• Tokenization push: Robinhood launched tokenized stock and ETF trading for European Union customers under new regional crypto asset regulations, with plans to expand tokenized access to private companies over time.
• International expansion: Robinhood agreed to acquire Indonesian brokerage and crypto asset trading businesses, continuing its push beyond the United States and Europe.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Robinhood actually do?

Robinhood operates a mobile first financial platform that lets customers trade stocks, options, futures, event contracts and cryptocurrency, invest for retirement, and access premium features through its Robinhood Gold subscription.

Who founded Robinhood and when?

Robinhood was founded in 2013 by Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, who met while studying at Stanford University and had previously built high frequency trading software companies together.

Who is the CEO of Robinhood?

Vlad Tenev is Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Robinhood. He has held the sole CEO role since November 2020, after co founder Baiju Bhatt stepped down as co CEO.

Does Robinhood pay a dividend?

No. Robinhood does not currently pay a dividend. The company has instead prioritized reinvestment, acquisitions, and share buybacks as ways of using its capital and returning value to shareholders.

Is Robinhood in the S&P 500?

Yes. Robinhood officially joined the S&P 500 index on September 22, 2025, replacing Caesars Entertainment as part of a quarterly index rebalancing.

How does Robinhood make money if trades are commission free?

Robinhood primarily earns revenue through payment for order flow on stock, options and crypto trades, net interest income on customer cash and margin loans, and subscription revenue from Robinhood Gold, along with newer categories such as event contracts and prediction markets.

Why is Robinhood stock so volatile?

A meaningful portion of Robinhood’s revenue is tied to trading volumes and crypto prices, both of which can swing quickly with market sentiment. Because of this, HOOD shares often move sharply around earnings reports, crypto market cycles, and news about new product launches or regulation.

Who are Robinhood’s biggest competitors?

Robinhood’s main competitors include Charles Schwab, Interactive Brokers, Fidelity Investments, Coinbase, SoFi Technologies and Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE platform.

This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax or legal advice. Stock prices, market capitalization, revenue figures and analyst price targets change frequently, and the figures above reflect publicly available data as of early July 2026. Always verify current numbers with a live market data source and consider speaking with a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions involving Robinhood Markets, Inc. or any other security.