When USD stablecoins gradually attract market attention, companies inside and outside the crypto have started to view US stocks as their next target.

At the end of May, US crypto exchange Kraken announced that it would offer tokenized popular US stocks to non-US customers; on June 18, Coinbase's Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal revealed that the company is seeking SEC approval to launch a "tokenized stock" service.

US stock tokenization is gradually becoming an explicit business.

Now, this business may have welcomed a new player - the well-known American online brokerage, the "retail investor alliance", and a key force in the movement to defeat Wall Street - Robinhood.

Previously, two people familiar with Robinhood told Bloomberg that they are developing a blockchain-based platform that allows retail investors in Europe to trade US stocks.

According to sources, the technical selection for this platform might be Arbitrum or Solana, with the specific partner still undecided and the protocol not yet finalized.

This news can be read on at least two levels.

First, Robinhood directly integrates Arbitrum L2 in this new platform allowing European users to trade US stocks, serving as its blockchain transaction base layer;

Second, and more likely, Robinhood plans to use Arbitrum's Arbitrum Chains feature to develop its own dedicated L2 chain based on Arbitrum's technology stack (Rollup protocol, EVM compatibility, etc.).

Regardless of the final scenario, market sentiment has been stirred.

This means that for the US stock tokenization business, Robinhood might create its own L2, which would be more conducive to on-chain settlement and specialized operations.

At the upcoming EthCC in Cannes, France on the 30th, Robinhood will also announce an important declaration at 17:00 local time (23:00 Beijing time), which has led to speculation about its L2 and US stock tokenization business.

Meanwhile, A.J. Warner, Chief Strategy Officer of Offchain Labs behind Arbitrum, will also attend the conference, giving more imagination to a potential joint announcement.

ARB, which has been slightly dull in price recently, once broke through a 20% increase in 24 hours, ranking among the top in crypto gains.

More suggestively, Robinhood's European X account replied "Stay tuned" under a conference agenda discussion post, and combined with Bloomberg's report about providing US stock trading to the European region, the possibility of an official announcement of this feature has become higher.

Everything Has a Trace

Robinhood's US stock tokenization concept is not a sudden whim.

In January this year, the company's CEO Vlad Tenev criticized current US regulations, believing that the US has not provided a clear framework and rules for securities token registration, hindering the promotion of tokenized products.

In a podcast in March, Tenev directly said: "Now, if you're overseas, investing in a US company is very difficult."

This touched on the pain point of most investors who are concerned about US stock trends but are not physically in the US, who urgently need a more seamless way to trade US stocks.

At the same time, Tenev also stated that he was considering tokenizing securities and pointed out that this would be part of a broader push to integrate digital assets into the financial system.

Now, the signs of paving the way are all traceable.

Currently, Robinhood's customers in the EU region can only trade cryptocurrencies, but the company obtained a brokerage license in Lithuania last month, allowing it to provide stock trading and other investment services in the EU.

Additionally, Robinhood signed an agreement to acquire crypto exchange Bitstamp last June. After the transaction is completed, Robinhood will be able to use Bitstamp's MiFID multilateral trading facility license to provide crypto-related derivatives.

The licenses are obtained, regulations are complied with, and at the implementation level, it's time to consider which chain to use.

Why Might It Be Arbitrum?

From a technical perspective, Arbitrum is a fully EVM-compatible L2 solution, which means Robinhood can seamlessly migrate its existing Ethereum smart contracts and development tools without major modifications to its tech stack.

EVM compatibility can be said to be the key for large fintech companies like Robinhood to quickly go on-chain. If they can leverage Ethereum's extensive developer community and existing infrastructure, who would set it aside?

Looking further, Arbitrum's Optimistic Rollup technology also strikes a balance between transaction confirmation time and cost; in comparison, ZK Rollup has higher cost overhead and relatively slower transaction confirmation times. As a platform that needs to handle large-scale user transactions, Robinhood is more likely to prioritize Arbitrum's mature technology and lower development barriers.

On the other hand, from a business perspective, this choice also avoids Coinbase.

Base is an L2 launched by Coinbase, also using the OP technology stack. However, due to direct competition with Robinhood in their main business, it is unlikely that Robinhood would run its US stock tokenization business directly on Base.

Arbitrum's option of custom L2 chains (Arbitrum Chains) allows Robinhood to differentiate itself from Base.

A detail you might have overlooked is that Robinhood and Arbitrum actually have previous collaboration experience.

As early as ETHDenver 2024, Robinhood had officially announced cooperation with Arbitrum, simplifying the process for users to access Arbitrum through Robinhood Wallet.

This indicates that the two parties already have a foundation of technical integration and strategic alliance. Robinhood may choose to continue this cooperation, leveraging Arbitrum's existing technical support and brand effect to further expand its business.

Imitating Base, Differentiating from Base

Although Robinhood's news about building its own L2 with Arbitrum has not been officially confirmed, it has already sparked widespread discussion in the crypto community.

The sharpest voice is that this approach is a simple imitation of Base.

Base, launched by Coinbase, adopts an open strategy, inviting external developers to build DApps, thereby expanding its ecosystem and attracting users and assets. Base's success is partly attributed to this open ecosystem (such as projects like Aerodrome and Uniswap migrating or building on it).

If Robinhood also builds an L2 based on Arbitrum, opens it to external developers to expand the ecosystem, and runs more real-asset on-chain use cases, despite different technology stacks, this would already be highly similar to Base's business strategy.

The key to creating this "imitation" impression is lag.

Don't forget that Coinbase launched Base as early as the end of 2023, while Robinhood is only announcing its Arbitrum L2 plan now. This time difference makes Robinhood's actions look like a "follow-up" reaction to Base's success, rather than an original strategy.

In traditional business, fintech companies tend to replicate proven models, which is indeed a safer strategy. However, imitating Base means Robinhood will directly compete with Coinbase, who has already established a first-mover advantage through Base. For Robinhood to overtake them, it would need to invest more resources and effort.

The well-known data platform Token Terminal also pointed out a "clear path" for Robinhood, which is essentially to amplify its advantages as an online brokerage and take a "closed ecosystem" route opposite to Base:

Do not invite external application developers to join its L2, but migrate all of Robinhood's existing financial products (such as trading or investment tools), assets, and users to the chain, allowing users to operate directly on-chain instead of relying on traditional centralized systems.

This idea is more Crypto Native, combining Robinhood's existing customer base with pure on-chain gameplay, but a more radical approach also means greater resistance, and Robinhood may not follow this path.

Looking at the entire Ethereum ecosystem, there are also voices suggesting that this would further fragment Ethereum's L2 landscape.