Robinhood has added approximately $25 million worth of bitcoin to its corporate balance sheet, according to statements by Johann Kerbrat, the company's senior vice president and general manager of crypto and international. Kerbrat said the allocation is intended to align Robinhood with the crypto community and is small relative to the company's scale, citing a market capitalization in the $100 billion range and saying the amount will not alter the company's current trajectory. CoinDesk reported the figure was disclosed in an interview on The Starting Block broadcast at the Digital Asset Summit Asia conference on Wednesday, and said the company has not confirmed the purchase; CryptoSlate and Unchained described the allocation as announced, with Unchained saying Kerbrat spoke to The Block and CryptoSlate quoting him in a post on X. CoinDesk dated its report Oct. 7, 2026, the same day Unchained posted its article.
Robinhood executive says firm added about $25 million of bitcoin to its balance sheet
Robinhood has added approximately $25 million worth of bitcoin to its corporate balance sheet, according to statements by Johann Kerbrat, the company's senior vice president and general manager of crypto and international. Kerbrat said the allocation is intended to align Robinhood with the crypto community and is small relative to the company's scale, citing a market capitalization in the $100 billion range and saying the amount will not alter the company's current trajectory. CoinDesk reported the figure was disclosed in an interview on The Starting Block broadcast at the Digital Asset Summit Asia conference on Wednesday, and said the company has not confirmed the purchase; CryptoSlate and Unchained described the allocation as announced, with Unchained saying Kerbrat spoke to The Block and CryptoSlate quoting him in a post on X. CoinDesk dated its report Oct. 7, 2026, the same day Unchained posted its article.
Kerbrat's stated rationale centers on alignment with the crypto sector. According to Unchained, he told The Block, "We care deeply about bitcoin and the ecosystem around it," adding, "For us, it's more aligning our company and our vision with the crypto community." CryptoSlate quoted him saying on X, "We believe firmly in the future of crypto," and describing bitcoin as a strategic addition that diversifies the company's assets. CoinDesk quoted him saying the decision reflects how deeply the firm cares about bitcoin and the ecosystem.
On size, Kerbrat described the purchase as modest for a company of Robinhood's scale. Unchained and CoinDesk both report him pointing to a market capitalization of around $100 billion and saying, in CoinDesk's rendering, that "the $25 million worth of bitcoin is not going to change a lot of the current trajectory of the company."
CryptoSlate reported the allocation marks a change from the company's position less than a year earlier. On Robinhood's third-quarter 2025 earnings call, finance executive Shiv Verma said management had spent considerable time debating whether to hold bitcoin or other digital assets as part of its corporate treasury. CryptoSlate reported the central concern was capital allocation: a treasury position could bring Robinhood closer to the crypto community, but shareholders could already buy bitcoin directly through Robinhood, and management had to weigh such an allocation against spending on engineering, products and other growth initiatives. Verma said at the time the company was "still thinking about it," according to CryptoSlate.
CryptoSlate, citing Robinhood's second-quarter filing, reported the company held $5.362 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of June 30, 2026, along with $155 million in stablecoins, putting the $25 million allocation at less than 0.5% of the reported cash balance. CryptoSlate also noted the announcement does not specify whether the allocation is a one-time move or the start of a recurring treasury program, a distinction it said would determine whether the move stays largely symbolic.
CryptoSlate reported the allocation sits alongside an expanding crypto business. It said Robinhood acquired Bitstamp for about $224 million in June 2025, giving it a global exchange with institutional and retail customers, and that customers traded about $40 billion of crypto across Robinhood and Bitstamp in the second quarter, including $18 billion through Robinhood's app and $22 billion through Bitstamp. CryptoSlate reported $100 million of cryptocurrency transaction revenue in the quarter, down 38% from a year earlier, with crypto at 8% of total net revenue versus 16% a year earlier.
CoinDesk reported that Robinhood launched Robinhood Chain in July, describing it as an Ethereum-compatible Layer 2 built on Arbitrum and aimed at tokenized real-world assets and decentralized finance. Since the mainnet debut, CoinDesk said the chain has rolled out tokenized stock products, a stablecoin (USDG) and yield-bearing lending through Robinhood Earn, with integrations including Uniswap and infrastructure from Chainlink, Alchemy and BitGo. Unchained also said the public mainnet launched in July.
Unchained reported that Robinhood announced on Sept. 29 plans to offer perpetual futures to eligible US customers in the coming months through Bitstamp, carrying up to 10x leverage on bitcoin and ether, 3x on other assets, and a 0.01% fee per trade until year-end. It quoted CEO Vlad Tenev saying on X that the contracts have "No expiry, with P&L settled every 15 minutes."
On customer scale, Unchained reported Kerbrat told The Block that Robinhood has 28 million funded accounts, 27 million of them in the US, and that its wallet, the official wallet for Robinhood Chain, is available in more than 120 countries. CoinDesk reported the company has over 28 million funded customers globally.
The sources placed the move in the context of other public companies holding bitcoin. Unchained reported that Strategy, which holds bitcoin as a treasury asset, said Monday it bought 334 bitcoin for about $28.7 million between Oct. 1 and Oct. 4, at an average of $85,838.80 per coin, lifting its holdings to 848,000 BTC. CoinDesk reported Strategy started the corporate treasury trend in 2020 and has been followed by more than 170 firms worldwide, with current corporate holders including Tesla, Block, MARA Holdings, CleanSpark and Riot Platforms together accounting for well over 1.2 million BTC across their balance sheets. CryptoSlate said Strategy routinely raises capital to expand its holdings and that Robinhood's initial position leaves it well short of that kind of accumulation strategy.
Unchained noted its article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed, edited and fact-checked by an editorial team member before publication.
Where sources differ
- Confirmation status: CoinDesk described the addition as reported and stated the company has not confirmed the purchase, while CryptoSlate and Unchained presented the allocation as announced or completed by Robinhood.
- Channel of disclosure: CryptoSlate quoted Kerbrat's statement from a post on X; Unchained reported he told The Block; CoinDesk reported he disclosed the figure in an interview on The Starting Block broadcast at the Digital Asset Summit Asia conference.
- Attribution of Kerbrat's remarks: Unchained attributes his comments to The Block, while CoinDesk attributes them to the DAS Asia interview and CryptoSlate quotes a separate X post; the sources do not identify a single common venue for the statements.
- Amount framing: CoinDesk and Unchained describe the figure as approximately or about $25 million worth of bitcoin, while CryptoSlate states $25 million of Bitcoin without an approximation qualifier.
- Whether the $25 million allocation is a one-time purchase or the start of a recurring corporate treasury program; CryptoSlate states the announcement does not specify this.
- Independent confirmation of the purchase and the $25 million figure from Robinhood's own disclosures or filings; CoinDesk states the company has not confirmed the acquisition.
- Whether Robinhood issued a formal corporate statement beyond Kerbrat's remarks; CoinDesk says it reached out to Robinhood's press team to ask about potential plans to acquire more bitcoin or other tokens, and no response is reported.
- The date, execution price, counterparty, or method by which the bitcoin was acquired.
- Which communication channel was the original disclosure; the sources cite an X post, The Block interview and a conference broadcast without reconciling them.
- Comment from Robinhood shareholders, analysts or other stakeholders on whether the allocation benefits them.
- The sources do not reconcile Unchained's report that Strategy alone holds 848,000 BTC with CoinDesk's report that named corporate holders together account for well over 1.2 million BTC.
- The exact publication and announcement times are not established beyond Unchained's posting time of Oct. 7, 2026 at 6:04 am ET and CoinDesk's publication at 4:53 am EDT the same day.
- CryptoSlate — original — by Oluwapelumi Adejumo
- Unchained — by Unchained
- CoinDesk — by Omkar Godbole
Read the original at CryptoSlate