Robinhood’s (HOOD) Next Act is All About Velocity
Q1 2025 Earnings Review
If you had to reduce Robinhood’s quarter to one word, it would be velocity. Not just in product releases, but in its ambition to become the default financial ecosystem for the next generation.
Let’s unpack what that velocity looks like—and why it’s not just noise.
Active Trading: Robinhood Legend is Taking Shape
Robinhood’s active trader platform—Legend—isn't just a concept anymore. It's delivering. Futures launched in Q1 saw 4.5 million contracts traded in April alone—more than the entire first quarter. Prediction markets? 1 billion contracts over the past six months, and that’s just the start.
This isn’t incremental tinkering. Robinhood is throwing down the gauntlet at the feet of incumbents like Interactive Brokers and CME Group. The platform has expanded asset classes, sped up execution, added new charting tools, and—crucially—is shipping features weekly.
Product Expansion Has Become a Reflex
Three major products launched this quarter:
Robinhood Strategies: Already 40,000 customers and $100M in AUM
Robinhood Cortex: Still early, but designed for deeper personalization
Robinhood Banking: Taking direct aim at traditional banks
That’s not just pipeline filling—it’s platform thinking. Robinhood is building the toolkit for modern financial behavior.
Robinhood Gold Is Becoming a Franchise
Gold credit card holders doubled in weeks to 200K. And the company isn’t shy about its inspiration: Costco and Amazon Prime. Vlad Tenev wants Gold to become a must-have membership in finance. One that’s too valuable to cancel.
That thinking is powerful. Not just because it drives recurring revenue, but because it creates behavioral gravity—customers want to stay in the Robinhood loop.
Wallet Share is Rising—Fast
Total retirement assets are now at $16B, up 20% since the start of the year. Add in the completed TradePMR acquisition ($40B+ in platform assets), and you start to see a clearer picture: Robinhood’s share of wallet isn’t just expanding—it’s compounding.
Going Global, Building Moats
Robinhood’s global ambitions are coming into view:
UK brokerage product improving
Asia expansion in the works
Bitstamp crypto acquisition on track for mid-year close
And a major crypto event planned in France this summer
They’re not just building features. They’re building infrastructure.
The Business Is Scaling Nicely
Topline grew 50% YoY. EPS more than doubled. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 11 points. April metrics reinforce the momentum:
$6.5B in net deposits
4-year highs in equity trading
Crypto volume north of $8B
Margin balances doubled YoY to $8.4B
And maybe most impressively: Robinhood now has nine businesses with annualized revenues over $100M—nearly double from a few years ago. Futures, prediction markets, and index options are already scaling toward $20M ARR each.
Zooming Out: This Isn’t the Same Robinhood
The company isn’t just a trading app anymore. It’s a rapidly evolving financial platform aiming to be as culturally relevant to the next generation as Venmo or TikTok.
What stood out this quarter wasn’t just the numbers. It was the speed.
Robinhood’s product engine is humming, its customer base is broadening, and its ambition has shifted from a trading-first app to an everything-finance platform with recurring revenue and real margin leverage.
The mission—democratize finance for all—is still intact. But the execution is now matching the ambition.
Would you bet against velocity?