Robinhood Markets was founded in 2013 by Stanford graduates Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, who wanted retail investors to trade stocks without paying the $7 to $10 commissions common at the time. The app launched in 2015 after a waitlist of about one million people, and by October 2019 Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, E*Trade and Fidelity had dropped commissions on online stock trades.
How Robinhood makes money
Robinhood routes customer orders to market makers that pay it for the order flow, earns spreads on crypto trades and fees on event contracts, collects interest on margin loans, securities lending and cash, and sells the Robinhood Gold subscription. In Q2 2026 transaction-based revenues were $776 million, net interest revenues $389 million and other revenues $143 million.
GameStop and the IPO
In January 2021 Robinhood restricted buying of GameStop and other meme stocks after a clearinghouse demanded about $3 billion in collateral. The decision drew congressional hearings and lawsuits. Robinhood went public on Nasdaq in July 2021 at $38 per share, then saw revenue fall to $1.358 billion in 2022 as trading cooled.
From trading app to financial platform
Robinhood added IRAs with matching contributions, 24-hour trading, the Robinhood Gold Card (built on its 2023 X1 acquisition), advisory custody through TradePMR and global crypto through Bitstamp, both closed in 2025. Revenue reached $4.473 billion in 2025 with $1.883 billion in net income, and the company joined the S&P 500 that September.
2026 so far
Q2 2026 revenue was a record $1.31 billion, up 32%, driven by options, equities and $156 million of event contracts revenue, while crypto revenue fell 38%. Funded customers reached 28.4 million, Gold subscribers 4.8 million and Total Platform Assets $369 billion. In June 2026 Robinhood cut about 10% of its workforce to flatten management.
