Robinhood Unveils Tokenized Stocks, Perps, and L2

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Good Morning.

The past 48 hours signaled that crypto will continue to merge with TradFi and the broader FinTech landscape. It’s more important than ever for both builders and crypto-native investors to re-think their edge in this new world. Meanwhile, Trump’s big beautiful bill passed the Senate and is going to the House of Rep next. We’ll see how that turns out amidst his public fight with his ex-husband Elon Musk.

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: Robinhood Unveils Tokenized Stocks, Perps, and L2 👀 

• Case Study: TD Cowen Reaffirms Buy on Strategy 🔎 

• Governance & Features: Katana’s Mainnet Goes Live ⚔️ 

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WHAT MATTERS

Robinhood Unveils Tokenized Stocks, Futures, and L2

State of play: Robinhood announced a major expansion of its crypto and tokenized asset offerings in Europe and the US. The company will now let EU users buy over 200 tokenized versions of US stocks like Tesla and Apple.

• These tokens will be issued on the Arbitrum blockchain and pay dividends through the Robinhood app.

• CEO Vlad Tenev also revealed plans to distribute tokenized shares in private companies such as OpenAI and SpaceX to EU users.

• Robinhood is also developing its own Layer 2 blockchain built on Arbitrum to support these products.

Robinhood also launched perpetual futures for EU customers, offering continuous exposure and up to 3x leverage, with a full rollout expected by summer’s end. The platform has started staking services for Ethereum and Solana in the US, EU, and EEA.

• This push follows the closure of its $200M acquisition of Bitstamp, which gives the firm over 50 global licenses.

Why it matters: Robinhood’s tokenized stocks promise easier access but come with big challenges. Limited trading hours, high redemption fees, and after-hours price risks mean liquidity could vanish when markets are volatile.

Our take: Robinhood focuses on simplicity and accessibility. But more advanced traders may prefer Kraken’s approach for transparency and control. This difference highlights a key debate: real ownership vs. synthetic exposure.

For builders and investors: Focus on redemption rights, market-hour constraints, and how liquidity will really work in stress scenarios. Long term, onchain equities can grow, but today’s offerings are still early and carry significant risks.

CASE STUDY

TD Cowen Reaffirms Buy on Strategy

Strategy added ~69K BTC in Q2 2025, exceeding TD Cowen’s forecast and bringing total holdings to 597,325 BTC (~$63B).

• The latest purchase of ~5,000 BTC was funded through equity sales and preferred offerings, which continue to trade above issuance prices.

• Strategy’s shares trade at a 63% premium to net asset value, which TD Cowen considers justified because each equity sale increases BTC per share and reinforces the firm’s role as a top spot bitcoin proxy.

• TD Cowen highlighted risks, including bitcoin volatility, regulatory crackdowns, and potential premium compression.

• Even so, Cowen kept its buy rating and $590 price target, 45% above the recent closing price, citing strong capital-raising ability and bullish bitcoin projections.

• Cowen now models Strategy accumulating over 850,000 BTC by 2027, or about 4.1% of the total BTC supply.

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INSIGHTS

Top RIA Recommends 40% Crypto Allocation

Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Engines managing $300B, declared the traditional 60/40 portfolio obsolete and recommended significant crypto allocations: 10% for conservative investors, 25% for moderate, and 40% for aggressive ones.

• He argued that owning crypto is now essential, not speculative.

• He is citing 15 years of outperformance, better risk-adjusted returns, and the risk of effectively shorting crypto by omitting it.

• He challenged advisors to act in clients’ best interests rather than avoid tough conversations about crypto exposure.

FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE

Katana’s Mainnet Goes Live

Polygon Labs and GSR have launched Katana, a DeFi-focused Layer 2 blockchain, on mainnet. Over $240M has been deposited so far.

• Built with a custom OP Stack (cdk-opgeth) and connected to AggLayer’s Vault Bridge, Katana aims to unify liquidity and boost DeFi yields.

• Early integrations include Morpho, Sushi, and Vertex, plus assets like AUSD and weETH.

• Katana plans to airdrop 1.5B KAT tokens (15% of supply) to POL stakers.

Other notable feature updates:

• Aptos has introduced Shelby.

• Sky has launched on Optimism.

• Morpho has launched Morpho Loans.

• Ethereal has launched its public testnet.

• Lido has launched Testnet-2 for Lido V3.

• Steakhouse Financial has unveiled Grove.

• Euler has launched its Super Lending App on Arbitrum.

• Gains Network has added 13 global stocks and indices to gTrade.

QUICK BITES

• Circle applies for a US banking license.

• SEC approves Grayscale's mixed crypto fund.

• Upbit to work on Won stablecoin with Naver Pay.

• Bit Digital raises $163M to fund Ethereum treasury.

• Deutsche Bank plans crypto custody launch in 2026.

• CEX spot volume hits 9-month low while DEX usage grows.

• DEX to CEX futures volume ratio hits an all-time high of 8%.

• Bitcoin ETFs’ inflow streak hits 15 days, pulling in nearly $5B.

• Figma owns $70M worth of Bitwise Bitcoin ETF shares as of Q1.

• NY Attorney General warns stablecoin bills put Americans at risk.

• Velodrome enables native cross-chain swaps for its DEX ecosystem.

• DDC Enterprise closes up to $528M to grow corporate BTC reserves.

• TD Cowen says Strategy’s equity-to-BTC loop justifies the NAV premium.

• Stable unveils phase 1 of its roadmap, including using USDT as L1 gas token.

• NYAG James warns stablecoin bill puts Americans at risk, urges stronger oversight.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Gwart’s read on the crypto open source dilemma.

• Helius’ read on Solana ecosystem report H1 2025.

• Ren’s read on Robinhood’s tokenized stock contracts.

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.