Robinhood, the popular U.S.-based trading app, has taken a bold step into the world of tokenised equities. The company now offers nearly 500 U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as blockchain-based tokens to users in the European Union (EU). This move aims to merge traditional stock trading with crypto-style access and 24/5 trading opportunities.
TradingView
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FinanceFeeds
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What’s Happened?
In June 2025, Robinhood announced the launch of tokenised U.S. stocks and ETFs for its EU customers.
Reuters
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At first, the number of assets was over 200; but by October the total had grown to about 493 tokenised assets.
FinanceFeeds
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These assets are issued on the Arbitrum layer-2 blockchain network, which ensures faster settlement and blockchain-native trading features.
Reuters
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What These Tokens Are (And Are Not)
The tokens mirror the price movements of the underlying U.S. stocks and ETFs, but they do not represent direct ownership of the actual shares. In other words, buying a tokenised Apple share doesn’t give you shareholder voting rights or direct ownership of a custody account holding Apple’s stock.
CoinGeek
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Instead, investors receive exposure to price changes through a derivative-style structure.
Robinhood says these tokens allow EU users to begin investing with as little as 1 euro and that trading can occur 24 hours a day, five days a week, with no hidden fees beyond a small currency exchange charge.
FinanceFeeds
Why This Matters
For many European investors, access to U.S. stocks can be cumbersome—think paperwork, intermediaries, currency conversions and restricted access. Tokenisation via Robinhood aims to remove many of these barriers.
CoinGeek
In addition, the blockchain layer allows for quicker settlement and the possibility to trade outside standard U.S. market hours, which could be appealing for global retail investors.
Key Figures & Scope
Approximately 493 tokenised assets (stocks + ETFs) are live.
TradingView
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Market value of included assets is over US$8.5 million in minting, with total mint volume above US$19.3 million.
KuCoin
Around 70% of the tokens represent stocks; roughly 24% are ETFs; the remainder covers commodities, crypto-ETFs and U.S. Treasuries.
FinanceFeeds
Regulatory Landscape & Cautions
Because these tokens don’t confer full shareholder rights, they fall into a regulatory grey area. They are more like synthetic derivatives than traditional equities. The regulatory body in Lithuania (where Robinhood is licensed in the EU) has already asked for clarification on how these products are structured.
FinanceFeeds
Experts warn that while tokenised stocks open new accessibilities, they also carry additional risks—liquidity uncertainty, lack of shareholder protections and unclear treatment under investor-protection laws.
Investopedia
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What’s Next for Robinhood & Investors?
Robinhood plans to expand the number of tokenised assets even further, potentially numbering in the thousands by end of 2025.
Reuters
It also aims to build its own Layer 2 blockchain infrastructure for tokenisation, moving beyond Arbitrum in the longer term.
Robinhood
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For investors, the key will be evaluating how these tokenised assets compare to traditional stocks—particularly in terms of ownership rights, regulatory protection and market dynamics.
Conclusion
Robinhood’s rollout of nearly 500 tokenised U.S. stocks and ETFs on Arbitrum for EU users marks a significant milestone in the convergence of crypto-technology and traditional finance. While the move opens exciting new possibilities for retail access and global trading, it also introduces novel risks and regulatory questions.
As the tokenisation of real-world assets grows, both platforms and regulators will need to keep pace to ensure that investor protection, transparency and market stability are maintained.
