Robinhood Perpetual Futures in Europe now cover commodities, currencies and ETF contracts. The broker unveiled the expansion at a London event. At the same time, it announced an imminent crypto launch in the United Kingdom.
Robinhood is a US broker that originally made its name with commission-free securities trading. Since 2023, however, the company has diversified away from the payment-for-order-flow model toward international markets, derivatives and crypto products. Under payment for order flow, a broker earns money by routing customer orders to market makers. This model replaces direct customer fees. According to its own figures, the provider serves more than 28 million customers across 38 countries on three continents. In the first quarter of 2026, however, transaction revenue came in below expectations, weighed down by crypto-driven volatility. The new contracts offer up to 10x leverage and can be traded around the clock. For the move into the United Kingdom, Robinhood already holds an FCA registration as a crypto-asset service provider.
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Robinhood Perpetual Futures: from crypto derivative to commodity contract
Perpetual futures are forward contracts without an expiry date. Through a periodic funding-rate mechanism, they stay close to the spot price of the underlying asset. The funding-rate mechanism periodically balances payments between long and short positions and anchors the contract price to the market. Unlike exchange-traded forward contracts, investors therefore do not have to regularly roll positions into new maturities. In the crypto market, they also rank as the highest-volume derivative instrument. Offshore platforms such as Binance, Bybit and OKX dominate this segment. Regulated Western brokers, by contrast, have so far rarely carried this instrument.
Contracts on commodities such as gold, silver and crude oil are now newly tradable. So is the EUR/USD currency pair. In addition, there are ETF-based contracts that likewise map entire index baskets and extend the underlyings beyond single commodities. As a result, the provider systematically transfers crypto-native derivative logic to traditional asset classes. Moreover, all contracts offer up to 10x leverage. For eligible investors in selected European markets, they are available around the clock. For European investors, this creates unified access to leveraged positions across crypto, commodities and currencies. Previously, this access was spread across specialized platforms.
In the United States, by contrast, this instrument has only recently been permitted. In May 2026, the CFTC approved perpetual futures contracts on regulated US exchanges for the first time. The BTCPERP contract from KalshiEX received the first approval. Furthermore, the agency published a policy statement setting the framework for further applications. The CME Group subsequently sued the CFTC over this decision, and the proceedings are ongoing. For Robinhood, this means a regulatory detour. Because what remains contested in the United States can already roll out in European markets.
FCA registration as a bridge to the UK market
According to its own statements, Robinhood wants to launch crypto trading in the United Kingdom "soon." However, the company did not name a concrete start date. The basis is an existing FCA registration as a crypto-asset service provider. This registration keeps the UK launch from looking like an empty promise. In addition, the FCA has been building its own crypto regulatory framework since 2024. Providers must align with this framework for the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, it is striking that a concrete timeline is missing: the provider communicates an intention, but no roadmap.
The goal is to build an all-in-one investment platform for the region. This platform bundles equities, crypto and derivatives under one roof. Consequently, this direction follows directly from the earnings situation, which fell short of expectations in the first quarter of 2026. Therefore, Robinhood is pursuing a diversification of revenue, away from dependence on pure trading volume. Recurring income from lending, derivatives and international fees is intended to cushion the swings going forward.
The European perpetual futures and the planned UK crypto launch thus belong to the same structural step. Both aim to decouple the business from US retail trading volume and to broaden the revenue base geographically.
WonderFi acquisition and MAS license as global bridgeheads
Back in June 2026, Robinhood closed the acquisition of WonderFi Technologies. The Canadian operator runs two of the country's oldest regulated crypto exchanges with Bitbuy and Coinsquare. Through the transaction, Robinhood gains access to roughly 300,000 funded customer accounts in Canada. The purchase price totaled CAD 250 million, roughly USD 180 million. Robinhood paid CAD 0.36 per share in an all-cash transaction. For Canadian customers, a flat fee of 0.5% per CAD transaction still applies. Until September 30, 2026, however, the company charges no trading fees.
"WonderFi has extensive experience operating regulated crypto platforms that appeal to both beginners and experienced users. That makes the company the ideal partner to advance Robinhood's mission in Canada." - Johann Kerbrat, SVP and General Manager Crypto & International at Robinhood
In Singapore, the provider additionally received a Capital Markets Services Licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The MAS license permits regulated capital markets services in one of Asia's most important financial centers. With the WonderFi acquisition, Robinhood furthermore crossed the mark of 1 million funded international customer accounts outside the United States. As a result, the company is building regulatory presence on three continents at once. It does so in Canada through acquisition and in Singapore through licensing. Ultimately, this presence gives it access that purely organic growth would hardly deliver as quickly.
Layer-2 blockchain and lending product as equity levers
At the same London event, Robinhood launched the mainnet of its own Layer-2 blockchain, the Robinhood Chain. A Layer-2 blockchain bundles transactions and settles them off the base chain, which lowers fees and confirmation times. In parallel, the provider introduced tokenized equities in more than 120 countries. With them, traditional company shares appear as tokens. With its own protocol layer, the company becomes more than a pure broker. It creates a platform that ties usage to its own infrastructure. For Robinhood, this raises value creation per customer, but shifts operational risk more heavily into its own ecosystem.
For US users, Robinhood finally adds the Robinhood Earn lending product. Through it, customers lend USDG, a dollar-backed stablecoin, via a self-custody wallet at roughly 7% annualized yield. Insurance coverage against cyberattacks and smart-contract exploits, arranged through Lloyd's of London and RELM, addresses the custodial risk. As a result, Robinhood enters into direct competition with established crypto yield offerings. Its protection against exploit losses sets the product apart from uninsured competitors.
