Robinhood has minted around 213 tokenized equities on the Arbitrum network for roughly $5 in gas fees, marking a move to offer European customers decentralized access to blue-chip U.S. stocks.
On-chain data from Arbscan shows Robinhood’s deployer address paid just 0.00233 ETH (about $5 at current prices) to deploy these tokens, covering major names such as Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple. According to a dashboard by Entropy Advisors on Dune Analytics, the average cost per token was around three cents.
The effort aligns with a broader trend of centralized exchanges and brokerages experimenting with tokenized equities, giving users fractional and blockchain-based exposure to traditional financial markets. Robinhood recently announced that EU users would soon be able to trade over 200 tokenized U.S. equities. Similar offerings have emerged from Bybit and Kraken through their partnership with Backed Finance’s xStocks tool.
While these blockchain-based assets are issued on a public chain, Robinhood uses a walled garden architecture. Researcher Ren from Electric Capital explained that all transfers route through an allow-list of approved wallets, likely preventing tokens from moving to self-custody solutions like MetaMask. “It’s very possible CeFi with distribution just outcompetes existing DeFi protocols,” Ren noted, highlighting how these permissioned models might benefit centralized players while limiting DeFi participation.
Beyond tokenized equities, Robinhood is also building its own Arbitrum-based Layer 2 network and is preparing to roll out perpetual futures trading for European users. The company has announced plans to introduce crypto staking services for Ethereum and Solana in both the U.S. and EU markets later this year.
Robinhood’s steps signal a growing push to blend traditional stock offerings with blockchain’s efficiency, even as debates over control versus decentralization continue to shape the industry.
July 2025, Cryptoniteuae
