Robinhood has launched a public testnet for Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum layer 2 community constructed on Arbitrum. Its Whole Worth Locked (TVL) is over $2.3 billion.
In accordance with a press launch seen by The Defiant, the testnet will permit builders to begin constructing apps and infrastructure on Robinhood Chain. The corporate says Robinhood Chain is designed to assist tokenized real-world belongings (RWA), lending platforms, perpetual futures exchanges, and different on-chain monetary providers.
In an unique interview with The Defiant, Robinhood Head of Cryptocurrency Johan Kerblatt mentioned the testnet is an early step towards constructing a broader on-chain monetary ecosystem.
“We expect it will actually speed up the event of on-chain monetary providers and the way forward for tokenization, which we’ve got been speaking about for a very long time,” Curblat instructed The Defiant founder Camila Russo. “So the testnet is basically step one in laying the inspiration for an ecosystem that may assist outline all of the tokenized reward belongings we plan to launch.”
The transfer comes as extra monetary corporations start to undertake on-chain expertise and combine their merchandise instantly onto blockchain networks. One space that’s experiencing significantly fast progress is tokenized RWA. Diversified asset worth elevated by about 11% previously month to $23.8 billion, in response to RWAxyz knowledge.
In accordance with the discharge, the testnet will give builders entry to primary community instruments, documentation, and Ethereum improvement software program constructed on Arbitrum. Robinhood mentioned some infrastructure suppliers have already linked to the community and expects extra to affix as testing continues.
Along with testing instantly by way of the Robinhood pockets, builders will even have entry to testnet-only belongings, together with fairness tokens, within the coming months.
Kerbrat described Robinhood Chain as permissionless, that means anybody can deploy functions. Nevertheless, he mentioned apps that seem inside the Robinhood app nonetheless should meet inner product necessities.
Kerblat mentioned Robinhood plans to be one of many first main builders on the community and ultimately desires to maneuver extra of its infrastructure on-chain.
“The primary developer to construct on the chain will truly be Robinhood,” he mentioned. “And our imaginative and prescient is not only to introduce one or two merchandise, however to slowly substitute Robinhood’s complete infrastructure with blockchain.”
Kerbrat revealed that early companions concerned within the launch embody Alchemy, LayerZero, and others to assist assist the primary section of the general public testnet.
“However the extra we proceed to develop, the extra we will even launch our personal merchandise that shall be partnerships or direct revenue-generating merchandise,” he added. “However I feel for us, it is the concept it isn’t only a income chain, however one thing that different builders can truly construct on high of.”
Robinhood already has tokenized fairness merchandise in Europe, and its providing has expanded quickly, from about 200 belongings when it launched final June to about 2,000 right now, in response to Kerblatt.
“So we grew 10x in lower than a 12 months, which exhibits how versatile our tokenization engine is,” Kerblat mentioned. “And from there, we expect you’ll be able to actually use this engine for something.”

Leave a Reply