Robinhood’s stock token trading volume has already reached levels that could run into limits under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s new innovation exemption for tokenized equities, according to the company’s crypto chief.
Summary
- Robinhood says its stock token volume is already high enough to potentially run into trading limits under the SEC’s new five year tokenization exemption.
- The SEC framework limits both the number of eligible tokenized stocks and their trading volume, with thresholds varying depending on the underlying asset.
- Robinhood plans to add voting rights and in kind redemption to its stock tokens as it continues working toward wider coverage of U.S. stocks and ETFs.
- The company is separately preparing U.S. perpetual futures for eight cryptocurrencies, with up to 10x leverage on Bitcoin and Ether and 3x on six other tokens.
According to Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s senior vice president and general manager of crypto and international, the company is still working through the conditions attached to the SEC order after regulators created a five year route for qualifying tokenized U.S. stocks.
“We’re still trying to understand all the parameters of it,” Kerbrat said in an interview during Korea Blockchain Week 2026. “There are limitations on the volume, and what type of assets we can tokenize. If you look at our volume on our stock tokens, it’s already pretty high and will hit some of its limits.”
The comments come after the SEC issued its innovation exemption on Sept. 17, allowing qualifying venues to trade tokenized National Market System stocks through permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools without registering as exchanges, provided they meet a set of conditions.
Robinhood stock token volume could test SEC caps
Trading limits under the exemption differ depending on the type of stock. Tier 1 tokenized stocks are limited to 75 symbols and 0.25% of the underlying stock’s average daily share volume during the previous month. Tier 2 products are capped at 250 symbols and 2.5% of the underlying stock’s average daily volume.
The SEC based the two categories on the existing Limit Up Limit Down Plan. Tier 1 includes stocks in the S&P 500 and Russell 1000 as well as certain exchange traded products, while other eligible NMS stocks fall into Tier 2.
A venue that repeatedly exceeds a volume threshold for a particular tokenized stock must pause trading in that product for three months. The first breach does not trigger the pause, though the venue must remain within the threshold afterward.
Robinhood had built considerable activity around tokenized stocks before the exemption was issued. In August, tokenized stock trading volume through Uniswap on Robinhood Chain reached $1 billion, according to Uniswap founder Hayden Adams. Robinhood Stock Tokens remained unavailable to U.S. investors at the time.
Kerbrat said the limits could become relevant given the activity Robinhood is already seeing, but viewed the SEC’s decision as a sign that the regulator wants to work with the industry on bringing equities onchain.
“Overall, I think what is really important from this signal with the exemption is that the SEC wants to work toward tokenization and understand the advantage of it,” he said. “So we’re really continuing to push toward more adoption of stock tokens and also a broader coverage of U.S. stocks and ETFs.”
SEC rules require the same shareholder rights
Robinhood’s existing Stock Tokens do not have the same legal structure as the tokenized NMS stocks covered by the SEC exemption.
The company offers its products through Robinhood Wallet in more than 120 countries, but not to U.S. users. They are debt securities issued by Robinhood Assets Jersey Limited and are backed by shares corresponding to the assets they track.
Under the SEC framework, qualifying tokenized NMS stocks must provide holders with the same rights and privileges as the equivalent conventional shares. The requirements cover economic rights as well as voting and other shareholder rights.
As crypto.news previously reported, synthetic products that provide only price exposure do not qualify for the exemption. Venues seeking to list stock tokenized by an unaffiliated third party must notify the company whose shares are being tokenized and give the issuer an opportunity to object.
Robinhood has already said changes are coming to its own Stock Tokens. Kerbrat and CEO Vlad Tenev said earlier in September that the company plans to introduce voting rights and in kind redemption.
The planned changes surfaced amid a public dispute with AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron, who criticized Robinhood’s AMC linked token and said his company had not consented to the product.
Robinhood maintains that issuer consent is not required under the structure it currently uses. Its AMC stock token structure gives investors economic exposure to the stock, while holders do not directly own AMC shares or receive the voting rights attached to them.
Kerbrat said Robinhood had been working on voting rights and in kind redemption before the dispute with Aron. In kind redemption, he said, was already discussed during the company’s July 1 event in London.
“Some of the criticism from the AMC CEO, if you look at it, it’s mostly a marketing stunt,” Kerbrat said. “We stand behind the legal structure of our systems.”
Robinhood’s stock token push dates back to its July product rollout, when the company launched Robinhood Chain alongside products designed to move traditional financial assets onchain.
Robinhood prepares crypto perps for U.S. traders
While Robinhood works through the SEC’s stock token framework, the company is preparing another onchain trading product for the U.S. market.
Robinhood announced on Sept. 29 that it plans to offer crypto perpetual futures to eligible U.S. customers across eight cryptocurrencies. The initial lineup consists of Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, Cardano, Chainlink and Hyperliquid.
Bitcoin and Ether perpetuals will offer leverage of up to 10x, while the other six assets will carry leverage of up to 3x.
Kerbrat said Robinhood chose those leverage levels itself. Whether the company eventually raises them remains undecided and will depend on trading behavior and the amount of liquidity available after launch.
Robinhood plans to use a global waterfall clearing system for the product. Kerbrat said the structure differs from some competing U.S. offerings and pointed to funding calculations as another difference.
Funding rates will be recalculated continuously on the exchange, he said, compared with competing platforms that recalculate rates every 15 minutes.
The company’s U.S. crypto perps plans will initially charge a 0.01% trading fee through the end of 2026, with Robinhood Derivatives offering the contracts through Bitstamp infrastructure.
Leverage levels will depend on liquidity
Kerbrat did not provide a list of additional derivatives Robinhood could bring to the U.S. in 2027.
The company has seen interest in commodity and ETF perpetual futures in Europe, but Kerbrat said there were no plans to announce single stock perpetual futures for U.S. customers.
Robinhood already gives customers access to options strategies that can be built using multiple legs, which Kerbrat pointed to when discussing how traders can take more complex positions without single stock perpetual contracts.
Any decision to raise leverage on the planned U.S. crypto perpetuals will come after Robinhood sees how customers use the products and how liquidity develops, he said.
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