Robinhood’s expansion into real-world assets (RWAs) is accelerating, as the digital brokerage rolls out a tokenization-focused layer-2 blockchain and launches stock token trading for users in the European Union. Built on Arbitrum, this new layer-2 network will facilitate the issuance of more than 200 US stock and exchange-traded fund (ETF) tokens, providing European investors with access to US assets, Robinhood announced on Monday. Trading Robinhood’s stock tokens will incur zero commissions and be available 24 hours a day, five days a week. Additionally, the company introduced perpetual futures in the EU, allowing eligible traders to access derivatives with up to three times leverage. These trades will be executed via Bitstamp, the crypto exchange Robinhood recently purchased for $200 million. Robinhood is not the first exchange to offer tokenized shares to European investors.

As reported by Cointelegraph, Gemini has already launched tokenized shares of Strategy (MSTR) stock, granting investors exposure to this Bitcoin-focused firm. Related: Crypto cards surpass banks in micro-spending across Europe: Report Robinhood’s crypto initiatives accelerate Robinhood announced its tokenization project shortly after releasing micro futures contracts for Bitcoin (BTC), XRP (XRP), and Solana (SOL), enabling traders to access derivatives markets with substantially lower capital requirements. In May, the platform acquired Canadian crypto operator WonderFi in a $179 million transaction. The company has also been pushing for thoughtful tokenization regulation in the United States, submitting a proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission to create a national framework for RWAs. Robinhood’s proposal includes launching the Real World Asset Exchange, a platform intended for off-chain trading paired with on-chain settlement. The RWA market has seen significant growth recently, surpassing $24 billion as of June, according to a RedStone report. Nevertheless, much of this expansion has been driven by private credit and US Treasury debt, while tokenized stocks constitute less than $400 million of the market.