Vlad Tenev’s net worth has exploded to $6.1 billion, up 6x in one year, powered by crypto, tokenized stocks, and his push to dominate global finance, according to Forbes. His company, Robinhood, has seen its stock price rocket 384%, hitting $111, and now carries a $98 billion market cap. This comes as the firm prepares to control every corner of financial services, from retail trading to AI wealth management to the looming $124 trillion wealth transfer. The firm revealed plans to roll out tokenized stocks in Europe. Starting in July, users in the region can trade non-voting stock tokens that mirror U.S. equities and ETFs like SpaceX and OpenAI. Trading will run 24 hours a day, five days a week, commission-free. U.S. customers will also get access to crypto staking, and the firm is launching perpetual futures on bitcoin and ether via its new $200 million acquisition of Bitstamp. Expands crypto dominance and swipes Bitstamp from Coinbase Robinhood is also building its own blockchain. “We have a chance to prove to the world what we’ve believed all along,” Vlad said, “that crypto is much more than a speculative asset.” He called it the “backbone of the global financial system.” “Could we actually put stocks on blockchains?” Vlad asked . That’s where tokenization came in. But even with attempts to partner with Blue Ocean for extended trading hours, the U.S. system proved too rigid. “Maybe that was a little bit naive,” he said. While U.S. regulators slowed crypto progress, Robinhood went on the offensive. In 2024, its crypto revenue hit $626 million, up from $135 million the year before. In Q1 2025 alone, it pulled in $252 million. That gave the company more than one-third of its total transaction revenue. According to Cantor Fitzgerald, Robinhood’s crypto volume spiked 36% in May, while Coinbase’s fell. Its Bitstamp takeover brought 5,000 institutional accounts, and gave Robinhood licenses in Europe and Asia. Kerbrat, Robinhood’s crypto lead, said their focus is different: “We want to build something that people can use on the day-to-day and actually see the advantage compared to the alternative financial system.” Analysts say Robinhood’s $255 billion in assets could match Interactive Brokers’ $665 billion in under a decade. It’s already gained market share on Schwab for 14 straight months. Turns Robinhood into full-stack finance with ten revenue lines Co-founder Baiju Bhatt left in March 2024 to chase space-based solar projects, but Vlad rolled out new products nonstop. Robinhood now offers IRAs, high-yield savings, a 3% cash back credit card with 3 million waitlist users, on-demand cash delivery, and options tools once reserved for Wall Street pros. Transactions still bring in 56% of revenue, down from 77% in 2021, but now ten product lines are on track to pull in $100 million each within two years. The company also introduced Robinhood Strategies, a hybrid robo-human investing service priced at 0.25% a year, capped at $250 for Gold members. Launched in March, it has already brought in $350 million. Vlad said the firm moves like a lab: “A lot of companies will just look at what’s happening in the outside world and copy it. When we launch products or new features, we do it because we like to figure stuff out.” Their home mortgage pilot, with a 6.1% fixed rate and $500 toward closing, quietly started in June and blew up online. “It went all over social media. Then I acknowledged we were running the pilot in a tweet. It was probably one of my most viral tweets of the year.” Robinhood’s current volume on tokenized stocks is still tiny. xStocks, a Swiss firm, has tokenized over 60 equities, including Apple and Amazon, but daily volume stays under $10 million. Despite that, others are moving. Gemini launched tokenized MicroStrategy shares. Coinbase is seeking SEC approval. BlackRock’s Larry Fink supports tokenizing all securities. Robinhood is going even further, issuing tokens for SpaceX and OpenAI, even though OpenAI has disavowed the move. Vlad doesn’t care. “It’s still a little crufty,” he admitted. “But what happens when it becomes self-custody? You’ll be able to hold your stocks and trade them across platforms, just like crypto.” He’s also now chairman of Harmonic, an AI startup building a reasoning engine to solve math problems with “guaranteed accuracy.” “It would be pretty amazing to solve the Riemann hypothesis… on a mobile app,” Vlad said. Your crypto news deserves attention - KEY Difference Wire puts you on 250+ top sites
