1 00:00:02,560 --> 00:00:07,080 Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. 2 00:00:08,360 --> 00:00:11,360 Speaker 2: Now another stock we're watching today Robinhood. The stock is 3 00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:15,480 Speaker 2: jumping after reporting topping estimates in its fourth quarter report. 4 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:19,240 Speaker 2: It's revenue beat powered by a seven hundred percent drump 5 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:22,960 Speaker 2: in its cryptocurrency revenue. The company also announcing it expects 6 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:26,040 Speaker 2: double digit revenue growth this year, joining US now Robinhood 7 00:00:26,079 --> 00:00:29,480 Speaker 2: CEO of Lad Tenev billion dollars in revenue for the 8 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:32,560 Speaker 2: first time as a public company. So clearly a great quarter. 9 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:35,839 Speaker 2: The stock is responding to it. I do want to 10 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:38,760 Speaker 2: talk Vlad about some of the growth initiatives, some of 11 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:43,160 Speaker 2: the newer initiatives you launch, derivatives, businesses that have been 12 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:47,159 Speaker 2: very much expanding event contracts. What can you tell us 13 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:49,960 Speaker 2: about how well they're doing into twenty twenty five that 14 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:53,160 Speaker 2: would signal these businesses becoming a bigger part of Robinhood 15 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:53,800 Speaker 2: moving forward. 16 00:00:55,440 --> 00:00:58,640 Speaker 3: Thanks Chanali, glad to be here. Yeah, it was a 17 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:02,560 Speaker 3: strong quarter. The job's not finished, and one of the 18 00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:06,399 Speaker 3: things we're most excited by is that there's a full 19 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:09,399 Speaker 3: packed roadmap. It's going to be an intense year and 20 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:12,240 Speaker 3: we're going to make progress across all three of our 21 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:16,920 Speaker 3: strategic priorities. You mentioned the Active Trader front Robinhood Legend, 22 00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:19,360 Speaker 3: which we unveiled a couple months ago, which is the 23 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:23,480 Speaker 3: first desktop platform that we built specifically for active traders 24 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 3: in mind, that's already off to a fast start. That's 25 00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:30,199 Speaker 3: up to fifty million in annualized revenue after just two 26 00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:33,920 Speaker 3: months of being live to customers, and we expect that 27 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:38,320 Speaker 3: to continue to accelerate as more customers adopt the platform 28 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:41,800 Speaker 3: and we keep making improvements. The team's been shipping features 29 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:45,679 Speaker 3: on a weekly basis and iterating extremely quickly. The feedback's 30 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:49,320 Speaker 3: been very very good. Index Options we already announced is 31 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:53,040 Speaker 3: up to a fifteen million annualized revenue run rate, and 32 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:56,400 Speaker 3: that product just went live in the past few months 33 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:59,600 Speaker 3: as well. And not to mention our derivatives business with 34 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:05,520 Speaker 3: few and a comprehensive prediction markets event contracts offering that 35 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:09,840 Speaker 3: are rolling out either now in the case of futures outrights, 36 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:13,720 Speaker 3: but in the next few months for the comprehensive event 37 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:14,760 Speaker 3: contracts offering. 38 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:17,360 Speaker 1: Well flat, that's exactly where I want to go the 39 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:20,040 Speaker 1: events contracts business. Before we get to the ambitions, I 40 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:22,720 Speaker 1: want to actually look backwards and talk about what happened 41 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:24,960 Speaker 1: with the Super Bowl because you launched those Super Bowl 42 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:28,000 Speaker 1: events contracts. They were live for about a day I think, 43 00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:31,280 Speaker 1: and then they were pulled at the request of the CFTC. 44 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:34,920 Speaker 1: You said that you were in contact with the CFTC beforehand. 45 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:37,640 Speaker 1: What actually happened there any light you could shed would 46 00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:38,600 Speaker 1: certainly be interesting. 47 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:43,240 Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, And I should say that we're huge 48 00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:45,840 Speaker 3: believers in prediction markets. We think they're the future of 49 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:49,800 Speaker 3: trading and also the future of news and information. So 50 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:53,320 Speaker 3: I've been a student and a fan for a long time, 51 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:55,880 Speaker 3: and that's one of the reasons we're so excited about 52 00:02:55,919 --> 00:03:00,800 Speaker 3: bringing a larger, comprehensive event contracts offering to our customers. 53 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:04,800 Speaker 3: You probably remember in November of last year, we launched 54 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:07,760 Speaker 3: the Presidential Election market, which allowed our customers to trade 55 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:11,960 Speaker 3: the election. That was our first event contracts offering, incredibly successful, 56 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:15,120 Speaker 3: over half a billion contracts traded in just about a week. 57 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:18,880 Speaker 3: We did follow that up with the Super Bowl last week, 58 00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:24,440 Speaker 3: and yeah, I mean, the CFTC had issue with that rollout. 59 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:28,080 Speaker 3: They asked us to suspend the rollout, which which we 60 00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:31,720 Speaker 3: complied with, even though I mean it was a little 61 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:35,400 Speaker 3: bit perplexing to us that several companies were allowed to 62 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:39,560 Speaker 3: continue offering those to consumers. So we're going to have 63 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:43,040 Speaker 3: to continue to work through that, and we believe in 64 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:46,160 Speaker 3: these products. They're coming, and robin is going to be 65 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:49,600 Speaker 3: a big part of offering those and also driving regulatory 66 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:52,840 Speaker 3: clarity to make sure that these products that are so 67 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,440 Speaker 3: useful and available to institutional consumers make their way to 68 00:03:56,920 --> 00:04:02,119 Speaker 3: retail as well. So TBD, you know, but I think 69 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:04,040 Speaker 3: you should expect us to be a leader in this 70 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:08,040 Speaker 3: innovative space and continue to push for clarity from regulators there. 71 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:11,400 Speaker 1: Well, just to say my own curiosity, it was live 72 00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:14,520 Speaker 1: for about a day. Did it actually generate any meaningful 73 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:15,840 Speaker 1: business or was it too fresh? 74 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:19,599 Speaker 3: We pulled it back after it was rolled out to 75 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:23,719 Speaker 3: a small percentage of customers. We did get some early 76 00:04:23,839 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 3: signs on whether customers would be interested in it, and 77 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:32,080 Speaker 3: particularly how they would feel about it being alongside other 78 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:36,840 Speaker 3: tradable assets like futures, options, equities and crypto because now 79 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:43,159 Speaker 3: Robinhood's a comprehensive, diversified platform. So the signals were good. Obviously, 80 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:47,520 Speaker 3: customers are interested in these products and that makes us 81 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 3: very very optimistic for delivering a comprehensive events offering later 82 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:52,240 Speaker 3: this year. 83 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:55,120 Speaker 4: Well, you know now you have a new CFTC, or 84 00:04:55,120 --> 00:04:57,520 Speaker 4: at least that CFTC is no longer the one you're 85 00:04:57,560 --> 00:05:01,000 Speaker 4: going to be dealing with in that and that light, lad, 86 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:03,560 Speaker 4: I'm sure that you attempt to be the best business 87 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:06,560 Speaker 4: that you can regardless of the environment. But different environments 88 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:11,440 Speaker 4: offer different opportunities. So what do you see as your 89 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:15,320 Speaker 4: advantages now in you know, Trump's new sort of golden 90 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:18,080 Speaker 4: golden era, golden age that he wants to drive. 91 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:22,200 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of a lot 92 00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:25,920 Speaker 3: of people focus on crypto, and we're certainly going to 93 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:29,279 Speaker 3: be in a more innovation friendly environment in crypto. I 94 00:05:29,279 --> 00:05:31,680 Speaker 3: think that's going to be a tailwind for our business 95 00:05:32,279 --> 00:05:35,799 Speaker 3: as one of the few scaled players in both crypto 96 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:40,680 Speaker 3: and traditional financial assets. But Robino's at the forefront of 97 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:44,920 Speaker 3: innovation and financial services in a few key areas. Artificial 98 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:48,800 Speaker 3: intelligence is coming and is going to disrupt financial services 99 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:52,159 Speaker 3: in a big way. We talked about event contracts and 100 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:56,800 Speaker 3: prediction markets and that's a huge innovative new product and 101 00:05:56,839 --> 00:05:59,040 Speaker 3: that that's going to be a new industry. We're at 102 00:05:59,080 --> 00:06:01,920 Speaker 3: the forefront of that, and so it's great to see 103 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:06,839 Speaker 3: innovation friendly regime that's coming in that believes that the 104 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:11,279 Speaker 3: US needs to be number one, number one in business 105 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:13,719 Speaker 3: and innovation, and I think that'll be good not just 106 00:06:13,760 --> 00:06:16,719 Speaker 3: for Robinhood, but but for every industry we operated. 107 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:20,680 Speaker 2: Speaking of innovation, this whole move to twenty four hour trading. 108 00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:24,000 Speaker 2: One way you have told investors now you're facilitating that 109 00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:28,679 Speaker 2: is partly through using stable coin to power settlements. How 110 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:31,200 Speaker 2: far does that go and how else can you be 111 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:34,839 Speaker 2: using stable coin to make your business more efficient? Does 112 00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:37,880 Speaker 2: that just take off once you have greater US rules 113 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:40,560 Speaker 2: around this? Yeah. 114 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:46,160 Speaker 3: So we're part of the US Dollar Global Network USDG 115 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:51,200 Speaker 3: with a couple of other great companies, And the idea 116 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:53,479 Speaker 3: that we want to introduce is that in order for 117 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:57,080 Speaker 3: stable coins to be competitive with other means of holding 118 00:06:57,080 --> 00:06:59,720 Speaker 3: and transacting in dollars, there needs to be a better 119 00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:03,920 Speaker 3: way to pass yield directly onto holders. And right now, 120 00:07:03,920 --> 00:07:06,000 Speaker 3: in a high interest rate environment, you can be getting 121 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:09,000 Speaker 3: four percent yield on your cash in a bank. So 122 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:11,960 Speaker 3: if it's not easy to get the same type of 123 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:16,200 Speaker 3: experience with stable coins, then they're not going to be 124 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 3: as competitive. So that's the real innovation that we're driving. 125 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:22,880 Speaker 3: Making it easy to do that now in terms of 126 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:28,000 Speaker 3: use of stable coins for institutional purposes. One of the 127 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:30,240 Speaker 3: things that we have to do to operate our crypto 128 00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:36,400 Speaker 3: platform is facilitate transactions and settlements between cash and crypto 129 00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:41,280 Speaker 3: twenty four to seven, particularly on weekends when the banks 130 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:45,040 Speaker 3: are usually not open and there's no way of transmitting 131 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:49,040 Speaker 3: dollars using banking rails on weekends. Stable coins solve that 132 00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:52,720 Speaker 3: problem because it's a twenty four to seven network that's 133 00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:56,240 Speaker 3: running on software. And I think that just shows you 134 00:07:56,320 --> 00:07:59,600 Speaker 3: just one of the advantages of crypto technology over the 135 00:07:59,640 --> 00:08:04,840 Speaker 3: tradition financial system, and that translates not just to money movement, 136 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:09,760 Speaker 3: but also to trading, to liquidity pools, and to the 137 00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:13,480 Speaker 3: trading of private assets that that are that are typically 138 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:14,600 Speaker 3: considered I liquid. 139 00:08:14,760 --> 00:08:16,960 Speaker 2: Speaking of private assets, a lot of things that are 140 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:19,200 Speaker 2: trying to be done in the private assets world is 141 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:22,840 Speaker 2: tokenization of private funds. You've been talking about tokenization as well. 142 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:25,760 Speaker 2: You told investors just last night that it's something that 143 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:29,200 Speaker 2: you're perhaps most excited about. How big of a business 144 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:31,960 Speaker 2: could that become for you? And what are the near 145 00:08:32,080 --> 00:08:35,400 Speaker 2: term plans to make tokenization a serious part of what 146 00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:36,200 Speaker 2: Robinhood does. 147 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:42,760 Speaker 3: Yeah, so I think the near term opportunity that everyone's 148 00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:46,800 Speaker 3: excited about in the US, provided we get some regulatory 149 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:50,560 Speaker 3: clarity on this. On this point is being able to 150 00:08:50,600 --> 00:08:55,680 Speaker 3: put real world assets on blockchains. And I think what 151 00:08:55,800 --> 00:08:59,920 Speaker 3: resonates with customers in the US is private private cum 152 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,920 Speaker 3: company stock. So I think it's ludicrous that you know, 153 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:08,120 Speaker 3: customers are free, retails free to invest in, you know, 154 00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:12,000 Speaker 3: a wide collection of mean coins and other alternative assets. 155 00:09:12,280 --> 00:09:15,880 Speaker 3: But open ai and SpaceX and other private companies that 156 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:19,880 Speaker 3: early backers have seen you know, one hundred x sometimes 157 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:24,000 Speaker 3: thousand x or more returns are impermissible and are seen 158 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:27,480 Speaker 3: as too risky. So I think that needs to change. 159 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:30,960 Speaker 3: And I think over time what you'll see is if 160 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:35,320 Speaker 3: we release the power of crypto technology and allow crypto 161 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:40,080 Speaker 3: to be connected to real world assets like securities. I 162 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:44,520 Speaker 3: mean the addressable market for that is every private and 163 00:09:44,559 --> 00:09:48,120 Speaker 3: public listed equity, which which is obviously trillions of dollars 164 00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:51,920 Speaker 3: in market value. We see crypto as the next stage 165 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:55,640 Speaker 3: and the technological advancement. We've gone from you know, filing 166 00:09:55,720 --> 00:10:00,760 Speaker 3: cabinet to mainframe to on premise to cloud, and I 167 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:02,840 Speaker 3: think the next stage of evolution is going to be 168 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:07,319 Speaker 3: the financial infrastructure going from cloud to crypto technology. I 169 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:10,520 Speaker 3: think Robinhood's best position to actually lead that transformation. 170 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:11,959 Speaker 4: Clod we only have about. 171 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:13,920 Speaker 1: A minute left, but you brought up meme coins, and 172 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:17,080 Speaker 1: I'm curious about that because compared to maybe some of 173 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:19,920 Speaker 1: your competitors, compared to a coinbase, for example, when it 174 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:22,800 Speaker 1: comes to meme coins, it seems like you've submitted fewer 175 00:10:22,880 --> 00:10:27,920 Speaker 1: requests to regulators to list those coins than Coinbase, for example. 176 00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:32,360 Speaker 1: Way is that and do you see that strategy changing 177 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:36,920 Speaker 1: maybe under this new regulatory regime. Yeah. 178 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:42,080 Speaker 3: I mean, historically we've been extremely selective about the assets 179 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:46,320 Speaker 3: that we list on the platform. I think now we're 180 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:49,000 Speaker 3: in a world where, you know, on some of these chains, 181 00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:54,319 Speaker 3: including Solana, there's hundreds of thousands or more new coins created, 182 00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:58,080 Speaker 3: and I think that's really interesting. On the one hand, 183 00:10:58,320 --> 00:11:02,240 Speaker 3: it raises questions for what it looks like to list 184 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:04,760 Speaker 3: assets and what the policy should be to make it 185 00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:08,719 Speaker 3: available to retail freely through these centralized platforms like Robinhood. 186 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:11,520 Speaker 3: I think we need clarity on that. On the other hand, 187 00:11:11,800 --> 00:11:14,360 Speaker 3: it kind of shows you the power of this technology 188 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:19,520 Speaker 3: and what an improvement it is upon the existing IPO process, 189 00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:23,080 Speaker 3: which is so long and cumbersome. That a lot of 190 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:26,640 Speaker 3: the best and biggest private companies are choosing to delay 191 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:29,600 Speaker 3: or forego it entirely. So that's why I think it's 192 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:35,760 Speaker 3: so interesting to connect crypto technology with real world productive assets, 193 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:39,000 Speaker 3: because all the benefits that you get can accrue to 194 00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:45,959 Speaker 3: customers that want to trade those revenue generating productive assets. 195 00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:48,480 Speaker 4: Glad great, have you on the program. Really appreciate your time. 196 00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:52,400 Speaker 4: Robinhood's CEO of vlad Tenev. They're talking to us about 197 00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:54,160 Speaker 4: driving his business forward.