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Simon Taylor sits down with Johann Kerbrat - SVP and General Manager of Crypto and International at Robinhood - recorded in London, hours before Robinhood's "The World Is Flat" event at the Old Royal Naval College, complete with TV-quality cameras, was opened by CEO Vlad Tenev wearing a full sailor outfit.
And my god, has Robinhood shipped - Product announcement include:
Robinhood Chain public mainnet, built on Arbitrum - live globally
Robinhood Earn - lend USDG at ~7% APY, insured via Lloyd's of London
Stock tokens in 120+ countries, usable as DeFi collateral
A new Robinhood Wallet with stock tokens, spot and perps
Commodity, ETF and FX perps in the EU
Agentic Accounts - plug your AI agent into Robinhood via MCP
Cortex, Robinhood's own AI market-digest agent
Maker orders with fees as low as 0%
Canada launch, zero trading fees until September 30
Crypto coming to the main UK app
🎙️ Listen to the episode here, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
📷 Watch on YouTube here.
Some Killer Quotes:
On Robinhood Earn, the 7% APY, and what's happening under the surface to make it all work:
"What was really important was to make sure that we had the most stable and predictable rate. So we're going to launch approximately at 7% APY." (13:20)
On working with the world's oldest insurance market to make DeFi mass market:
"We always thought that there was a bit of this conflict between going on DeFi and getting higher yield, but also taking more risk... It's going to be one of the largest insurance programs for a crypto product like this." (13:38)
On where the 7% comes from:
"Market makers, liquidity providers, and other partners that need this USDG will pay the yield." (15:28)
On connecting 27 million accounts to the chain:
"That's why I joined Robinhood initially. It was to connect all these millions of customers into the blockchain world." (14:27)
On what really backs a stock token:
"If tomorrow Robinhood goes bankrupt, which is very unlikely, but if something happens, the customer can still redeem their position." (11:47)
On borrowing against your stocks like the wealthy do:
"It's when you're a smaller portfolio holder that it's difficult, and banks don't want to let you do that, or they don't really want to spend the time on it." (9:08)
On the stablecoin yield ban:
"If they hold stablecoin, they're not going to get any yield. But if they hold euro or pound, they are able to get some yield... I don't think we should penalize retail customers that are utilizing the technology." (21:04)
On giving retail the tools institutions have:
"Institutions can have a room full of analysts. They can have Bloomberg terminals that are very expensive... And it's 24/7, so some people have to sleep. But your agent can actually do all that for you." (23:27)
On building through bear markets:
"If there's a down cycle, we actually focus on building. And when the market comes back, we have all these tools that are ready to be used by our customers." (27:44)
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