Everything is traceable. Robinhood's idea of tokenizing U.S. stocks is not a sudden whim. In January of this year, company CEO Vlad Tenev criticized the current U.S. regulations, believing that the United States has not yet provided a clear framework and rules for security token registration, which hinders the promotion of tokenized products. In a podcast in March, Tenev said very directly: "Now if you are overseas, it is very difficult to invest in an American company." This also hits the pain points of most investors who pay attention to U.S. stock trends but are not physically in the United States. They urgently need a smoother way to trade U.S. stocks. At the same time, Tenev also said at the time that he was considering tokenizing securities, and pointed out that this would be part of a broader push to integrate digital assets into the financial system. Looking at it now, there are signs of paving the way. Currently, Robinhood's customers in the EU can only trade Cryptocurrencies, and the company obtained a brokerage license in Lithuania last month, allowing it to provide investment services such as stock trading in the EU. In addition, Robinhood also signed an agreement to acquire Cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp in June last year. After the transaction is completed, Robinhood will be able to use Bitstamp's MiFID multilateral trading facility (MiFID) license to provide crypto-related derivatives. With the license obtained and regulations complied with, the next step is to consider which chain to choose at the implementation level. Why might it be Arbitrum? From a technical point of view, Arbitrum is a fully EVM-compatible Layer 2 solution, which means that Robinhood can seamlessly migrate its existing Ethereum smart contracts and development tools without significantly modifying its technology stack. EVM compatibility can be said to be the key for large financial technology companies such as Robinhood to quickly get on the chain. If they can take advantage of Ethereum's extensive developer community and existing infrastructure, who would put it aside? Furthermore, Arbitrum's Optimistic Rollup technology also strikes a balance between transaction confirmation time and cost; in contrast, ZK Rollup costs more and transaction confirmation time is relatively slower; Robinhood, as a platform that needs to handle large-scale user transactions, is more likely to prioritize Arbitrum's mature technology and lower development threshold. On the other hand, from a business perspective, this choice also avoids Coinbase. Base is a Layer 2 launched by Coinbase. It also uses the OP technology stack, but obviously because Roobinhood competes with Coinbase in its main business, it is unlikely to directly run the U.S. stock tokenization business on Base. Arbitrum provides the option of customizing Layer 2 chains (Arbitrum Chains), which allows Robinhood to differentiate itself from Base. One piece of information you may have overlooked is that Robinhood and Arbitrum actually have cooperation experience. As early as ETHDenver in 2024, Robinhood officially announced its cooperation with Arbitrum to simplify the process for users to access Arbitrum through Robinhood Wallet. This shows that the two parties already have a foundation for technical integration and strategic alliance. Robinhood may choose to continue this cooperation and use Arbitrum's existing technical support and brand effect to further expand its business.

Imitate Base, differentiate from Base. Although the news that Robinhood is building its own Layer 2 using Arbitrum has not been officially confirmed, it has already aroused widespread discussion in the crypto community. The most critical voice is that this gameplay is a simple imitation of Base. Base was launched by Coinbase and adopts an open strategy, inviting external developers to build DApps, thereby expanding the ecosystem and attracting users and assets. The success of Base is partly due to this open ecosystem (such as Aerodrome, Uniswap and other projects migrating or building on it). If Robinhood also builds a Layer 2 based on Arbitrum, opens it to external developers to expand the ecosystem, and runs more real-world asset on-chain use cases, although the technology stack is different, this is already highly similar to Base's business strategy. In terms of perception, the key to easily creating this "imitation" impression is the lag. Don't forget that Coinbase launched Base as early as the end of 2023, and Robinhood is only now announcing its Arbitrum L2 plan. This time difference makes Robinhood's actions look like a "follow-the-trend" reaction to Base's success, rather than an original strategy. In the traditional business field, financial technology companies usually tend to copy proven models, which is indeed a safer strategy; but imitating Base means that Robinhood will directly compete with Coinbase, and Coinbase has already established a first-mover advantage through Base. If Robinhood wants to overtake on a curve, it needs to invest more resources and effort. Token Terminal, a well-known data platform, has also pointed out a "clear path" for Roobinhood, the core of which is to amplify its advantages as an Internet brokerage and take a "closed ecosystem" route that is the opposite of Base: Do not invite external application developers to join its Layer 2, migrate all of Robinhood's existing financial products (such as trading or investment tools), assets and users to the chain, and allow users to operate directly on the chain, rather than relying on traditional centralized systems. This idea is more Crypto Native, and it combines Robinhood's existing customer base with pure on-chain gameplay, but a more radical approach also means greater resistance, and Robinhood may not follow this path. If we jump out of Robinhood to observe the entire Ethereum ecosystem, there is also a voice that this will make the split of Ethereum Layer 2 more serious. Ethereum L1 has already lost a lot of initiative in the current ecological situation where Layer 2 is everywhere. Whether the performance is good or not is secondary. More importantly, it is completely marginalized and piped. It is easy to make a Layer 2 dedicated to a specific task, but it is difficult to revive Ethereum's glory. What will Robinhood ultimately choose? We may get the answer after today's ETHcc. [深潮 TechFlow]
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Stablecoin company Circle has applied to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank, "First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A.," as part of its expansion of financial services after its IPO. If approved, the license would allow Circle to self-custody its USDC reserves and provide digital asset custody services to institutional clients, but would not include the authority to accept deposits or issue loans. Circle says its future custody focus will be on assets such as tokenized stocks and bonds, rather than traditional cryptocurrencies. [Reuters]

Social media entrepreneur Nikita Bier has joined social media platform X as head of product, according to an announcement on X. Bier, known for launching social media platforms acquired by Facebook and Discord, joined Solana Labs as an advisor in March to help expand the network's mobile app ecosystem.

"Finding my community and building an audience on 𝕏 has impacted my life more than any single thing: it's unlocked friendships, professional opportunities and it's even where I met my girlfriend," Bier wrote. "While I already spend every waking hour on this app, I'll now be spending that time helping others unlock that same value."

Bier noted that he looks forward to "leveraging the power of Grok to create hyper-relevant timelines and help people understand everything that's happening." Grok is an AI chatbot out of X's artificial intelligence arm xAI, which has signaled it will release its most recent AI model in the coming weeks. Elon Musk, the private owner of X, has hinted that the platform could integrate additional crypto features.

Bier previously co-founded the social media platform TBH, which allowed its predominantly teen user base to complement each other. Big Tech giant Meta (formerly Facebook) acquired TBH for an undisclosed sum less than $100 million, TechCrunch reported in 2017. However, Meta shut down TBH a year later. Bier also launched social app Gas, which was acquiredand quickly sunsetted by Discord.

Bier, now known predominantly known as a product advisor, joined Solana Labs as an advisor in March to assist app launches on the network.

SOL is up 2.65% on the day and is trading at $155.78 as of writing, according to The Block's Solana Price Page.