Robinhood's Second Revolution

First viad renev piew up wall Street's ree model. Now, thanks in part to his full-on crypto embrace, he has increased his fortune sixfold to $6 billion as he embarks on a global financial services takeover with tokenised stocks

- By NINA BAMBYSHEVA

Crypto financiers might seem unlikely guests at the Château de la Croix des Gardes, a 10-hectare Belle Époque villa commanding the Bay of Cannes from its hillside perch. Yet on a sun-drenched June afternoon, Robinhood Markets commandeered the storied estate, famous for its star turn in Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief, for 'To Catch a Token'—a crypto field day conceived by longtime Côte d'Azur resident Johann Kerbrat, the firm's head of crypto.

The spectacle opened with a cinematic flourish: A video of Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev driving a midnight-blue 1962 Jaguar E-Type convertible along the corniche, a homage to Cary Grant's entrance in Hitchcock's film. When the reel faded, Tenev stepped out in real time—decked out in a pinstriped white Tom Ford suit, black-and-white ascot, green attaché case in hand—to greet an invitation-only crowd of more than 300 that included ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin and top brass from financial heavyweights JPMorgan, Mastercard and Stripe.

The theatrics are warranted. Robinhood's stock was trading at $102 a share at the end of July, about 350 percent above last year's levels, vaulting the brokerage firm's market cap to nearly $90 billion and into the ranks of the world's 250 most valuable companies. In 2024, it generated $1.4 billion in profit on nearly $3 billion in revenue and now holds $255 billion in assets, expanding at a 44 percent net deposit growth rate over the past year. In terms of active or funded accounts, Robinhood, with 26 million, is rapidly gaining share on Schwab, with 37 million, is three times larger than Morgan Stanley's E-Trade and six times larger than Merrill Lynch.

Tenev's personal fortune has rocketed in the past year to $5.2 billion, landing him at No 36 on the 2025 list of America's Richest Immigrants.