A number of the finest firms for buyers are ones which can be actually disruptive. We have seen just a few — Amazon reshaped retail, Netflix reinvented video, Airbnb modified how we trip, and Uber Applied sciences and Lyft took on the taxi trade.
I feel Robinhood Markets(NASDAQ: HOOD) can safely be added to the checklist of disruptors. The fintech firm was in the correct place on the proper time when it started providing commission-free inventory buying and selling and a user-friendly app that made investing enjoyable. Robinhood basically opened the inventory market to retail merchants, who previously needed to pay a fee to brokers to do any trades. This compelled brokerages to observe swimsuit with their very own commission-free buying and selling practices.
Robinhood has been probably the greatest tales on Wall Road in 2025 as effectively — surging practically 300% this yr — and is buying and selling at all-time highs. Whereas this can be a high-flying inventory with a steep valuation, there are some main tailwinds that ought to proceed to energy Robinhood for the subsequent a number of quarters. Let’s break down this disruptive fintech.
Picture supply: Getty Photos.
Robinhood is a monetary providers firm that provides accounts to commerce shares and cryptocurrencies on its web-based platform and app. Customers can commerce complete or fractional shares, in addition to do choices and futures trades. The corporate claimed 26.7 million funded prospects in August, up 10% from a yr in the past. Whole platform property had been $303.9 billion, up 112% from August 2024.
Leads to the second quarter echoed the corporate’s dynamic progress. Income totaled $989 million, up 45% from a yr in the past; internet earnings of $386 million was up 105% from the identical interval in 2024. Robinhood posted earnings per share of $0.42, which was up 100% from final yr.
Robinhood can be incomes extra from its customers. The corporate reported common income per person of $151, which was up 34% on a year-over-year foundation. And the variety of Robinhood Gold subscribers, the corporate’s premium paid subscription service, elevated 76% to three.5 million. Robinhood is seeing regular progress, which is enticing to buyers.
Interval
Funded Clients (in tens of millions)
Robinhood Gold Subscribers (in tens of millions)
Whole Platform Belongings (in billions)
Q2 2024
24.2
1.98
$140
Q3 2024
23.3
2.19
$152
This autumn 2024
25.2
2.64
$193
Q1 2025
25.8
3.19
$221
Q2 2025
26.5
3.48
$279
Information supply: Robinhood.
Nonetheless, there are two different traits that make me enthusiastic about Robinhood inventory proper now.
Robinhood has enterprise mannequin. It makes cash on its commission-free trades by routing them by way of market makers to execute the order. These firms pay Robinhood a small price as compensation. And it makes cash buying and selling cryptos on the unfold — the small variations between what they cost a buyer and the worth at which they acquired an asset.
In March, it launched a brand new income stream in prediction markets. Prediction markets let buyers commerce based mostly on what they suppose will occur with future occasions. At the moment, there are practically 600 occasions out there on the corporate’s prediction markets hub, together with skilled hockey, baseball, and soccer, in addition to whether or not the Federal Reserve will reduce charges this month and the long run value of Bitcoin. Robinhood costs a fee of $0.01 per contract purchased or bought.
Robinhood informed Bloomberg that it plans to broaden the prediction markets hub globally and has already began talks with regulators within the U.Ok. This might be a large step for Robinhood and be the subsequent step within the firm’s disruptive evolution.
As well as, Robinhood launched a tokenization effort in June, making greater than 200 tokenized U.S. shares out there to its prospects within the European Union. Tokenization is the conversion of an asset, equivalent to a inventory, into digital tokens that may be traded on a blockchain. The tokenization transfer pushed Robinhood inventory to a brand new excessive, nevertheless it seems the momentum is simply starting.
Talking at a cryptocurrency panel in Singapore not too long ago, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev predicted that almost all main markets could have a framework for tokenized property, together with shares and actual property, within the subsequent 5 years.
“Tokenization is sort of a freight prepare. It might probably’t be stopped, and finally it’ll eat your complete monetary system,” he mentioned. Whereas that could be some hyperbole, it may well’t be argued Robinhood’s tokenization push is paying preliminary returns — and any enlargement will likely be good for the platform and the corporate.
Robinhood has a price-to-earnings ratio of 73 — frothy for certain, however close to the underside of its 10-year vary. Robinhood has at all times been an costly inventory, however that is what you’d anticipate from a fintech that is altering its trade.
While you have a look at the tailwinds this firm has going for it — the rising buyer base, elevated property, tokenization, prediction markets, and its enlargement into Europe — you may’t ignore the inventory’s momentum. It is a purchase proper now.
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Patrick Sanders has no place in any of the shares talked about. The Motley Idiot has positions in and recommends Airbnb, Amazon, Bitcoin, Netflix, and Uber Applied sciences. The Motley Idiot recommends Lyft. The Motley Idiot has a disclosure coverage.