Robinhood is going all-in on crypto as it expands into the European Union

While speaking from the French Riviera in the midst of a blistering heat wave on Monday, Robinhood (HOOD) CEO Vlad Tenev appeared to almost be rebranding his company as a crypto business.

Tenev was announcing the launch of Robinhood’s new crypto products, including “stock tokens” and ETFs, crypto perpetual futures, crypto “staking,” and other offerings to investors in both the U.S. and European Union.

While Robinhood has always identified itself as a pioneer of commission-free trading for U.S. investors in the traditional markets, Tenev sounded more like a different CEO - Brian Armstrong of Coinbase (COIN).

“We as an industry now find ourselves at an important precipice,” he said. “We have a chance to prove to the world what we believed all along – that crypto is much more than a speculative asset. It has the potential to become the backbone of the global financial system.”

This positioning of course could be part of Robinhood’s strategy - as it builds out its crypto offerings to investors, it will almost certainly be taking aim at the massive market share controlled by Coinbase.

It also makes sense that Robinhood would be going all in on crypto as it becomes mainstream in the traditional financial services sector, and as regulations start to take shape both at home in the U.S. and in Europe.

“Finally clear regulations are coming into effect in the European Union,” Tenev said. “This means we now have the clarity to unleash many of the financial innovations that crypto makes possible.”

He added that in the U.S. “after years of attempting to obliterate the crypto industry, it is finally ready to catch up to the rest of the world.”

Tenev said that one of the goals of Robinhood’s crypto strategy is to offer “products that go beyond bitcoin and memecoins and show fundamental utility.”

Robinhood’s “stock tokens” offers investors in the European Union the chance to buy tokenized contracts on a blockchain that follow a company's stock, rather than buying the actual shares themselves.

The company offers contracts that follow more than 200 stocks.

Advanced investors in the EU will also have access to perpetual crypto futures – although Robinhood notes they “are not available to everyone just yet.”

The derivatives allow investors to buy contracts that track the price of crypto.

And Robinhood has launched crypto staking for both U.S. and EU investors, which lets them receive a yield on their tokens for locking them up as collateral to help validate transactions and secure the blockchain network.

Shares of Robinhood ended Monday up 13% after the announcement, but came back down on Tuesday and closed almost flat.

Wall Street was bullish on Robinhood’s crypto strategy, with KeyBanc Capital Markets Analyst Alex Markgraff saying in a research note on Monday that the company has a “clear road map for expansion.”

Meanwhile Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brett Knoblauch said in a research note that with the announcement being largely focused on the EU, it “should help the company quickly penetrate markets outside the U.S.”

Robinhood’s stock has surged 147.8% this year.