Robinhood Challenges Coinbase with an RWA Chain [Crypto Briefing]

[Financial News] Robinhood, the U.S. online brokerage, is expanding its real-world asset (RWA) tokenization business by launching its own blockchain, the Robinhood Chain. The company is linking tokenized securities backed by U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as well as stablecoin-based on-chain finance, to its proprietary blockchain. The Depository Trust Company (DTC), a U.S. clearing and settlement institution under DTCC, is also pushing to launch a tokenization service in October, intensifying competition over related infrastructure.
According to data from on-chain analytics platform RWA.xyz on the 8th, the global RWA market capitalization stood at $37.2 billion at the end of last month, up 3.5% from the previous month. Money market funds (MMFs) and Treasury bonds rose 4.2% to $16.16 billion, while tokenized stocks increased 15.3% to $2.26 billion.
NH Investment & Securities cited the Robinhood Chain, launched last month, as one of the factors behind the growth of tokenized stocks. As of July 31, the Robinhood Chain had 97 RWA assets with a market capitalization of $27 million. The number of addresses holding RWA assets was 357,688. On the same basis, Ethereum's RWA market capitalization was $17.052 billion, Solana's was $3.676 billion, and Coinbase's Base stood at $347 million.
The Robinhood Chain is designed to transfer RWAs such as stocks and ETFs on-chain and connect them with decentralized finance (DeFi) services. Outside the United States, it also offers tokenized stock. However, investors do not directly own the underlying shares.
It also links stablecoins with on-chain lending. Robinhood has rolled out Robinhood Earn, which uses the lending protocol Morpho, in stages for eligible users in the United States. The service uses USDG, a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Paxos, and its expected annual yield at launch was about 7%.
Its existing business also continued to grow. Robinhood's revenue for the second quarter of this year came in at $1.308 billion, up 32.3% from a year earlier and a quarterly record. Operating profit rose 30.8% to $574 million, while customer net deposits reached a quarterly high of $21.7 billion. By contrast, cryptocurrency trading revenue fell 38% to $100 million.
Traditional financial market infrastructure is also moving faster on tokenization. On the 15th of last month, DTCC worked with more than 30 financial and crypto firms to tokenize securities held by DTC and use them in actual trading. DTCC is preparing to launch its tokenization service in October with a working group of more than 100 members and partners.
In South Korea, partnerships and investments between financial firms and crypto companies are also continuing, including Mirae Asset-Korbit and Korea Investment & Securities-Coinone. Going forward, the tokenization of traditional securities and the building of related issuance and distribution infrastructure are expected to emerge as key tasks for the financial investment industry.
An official from the financial investment industry said, "The cases of Robinhood and DTCC show that the time is not far off when all securities in the traditional capital market will move on-chain, beyond simple crypto trading." The official added, "Domestic financial firms must now devote themselves not just to simple equity investments, but to building tokenization infrastructure for traditional securities and securing on-chain liquidity."

[email protected] Kim Mi-hee Reporter