HOOD Stock Gets A Retail-Trading Boost: CEO Says Robinhood Beat GameStop-Era Activity

Tenev called prediction markets Robinhood’s “fastest-growing business line of all time.”

• Event contracts generated $156 million in Q2 revenue, topping equities and crypto.
• Tenev rejected gambling criticism, saying Robinhood’s strongest incentives support retirement investing.
• He also called Bitcoin the “original meme coin” and remained bullish over the long term.

Robinhood Markets (HOOD) shares drew fresh attention over the weekend after CEO Vlad Tenev said equity trading surpassed its 2021 GameStop-era peak last quarter, while options activity reached a record high.

HOOD stock jumped 14% on Friday, logging its best session in nearly seven months. 

Robinhood Trading Tops GameStop Era 

“Last quarter, people were trading more equities on Robinhood than back in 2021 when we saw GameStop,” Tenev said in a weekend interview with The Iced Coffee Hour. “Options, all-time high. We’re now the top options trading platform in retail market share.”

Tenev was referring to Robinhood’s second quarter (Q2), when Equity notional volume jumped 85% from a year ago to a record $956 billion, while options volume rose 50% to 774 million contracts. This helped transaction-based revenue climb 44% to $776 million, including $342 million from options. Total revenue increased 32% to a record $1.31 billion.

Robinhood ended the quarter with $369 billion in platform assets, up 32% from a year earlier. Customers deposited $21.7 billion during the quarter and $76 billion over the preceding 12 months. Combined with market gains, assets rose by about $125 billion in one year. The platform had about 28.4 million funded customers and a record 4.8 million Gold subscribers at quarter-end.

Robinhood Prediction Markets Boom

Tenev called prediction markets Robinhood’s “fastest-growing business line of all time,” saying they have expanded to “hundreds of millions in annual revenue.” Robinhood began offering event contracts around the 2024 presidential election and launched a dedicated prediction-markets hub in March 2025. 

The firm expanded the business further in May and June through Rothera, its federally regulated exchange and clearinghouse venture. Event contracts generated $156 million in Q2 revenue, surpassing equities at $129 million and cryptocurrency at $100 million. Options remained larger at $342 million.

AI Agents Take On Robinhood Trading 

Robinhood introduced Agentic Trading in beta in May, allowing customers to connect external AI agents to separate funded accounts. More than 50,000 accounts had been created by mid-June, with the figure crossing 100,000 by late July.

“If you have your Claude Code or other AI agent, anything you can do on your phone with Robinhood, your agent should be able to do,” Tenev said. The service initially supported equities before adding options, with cryptocurrency support planned.  Tenev also said internal AI adoption at Robinhood is “close to 100%,” calling employees’ evolving role “humans overseeing agents.”

Robinhood Users Eye Korean Stocks

Robinhood has long faced criticism that its platform encourages excessive trading, which was further intensified by its push into prediction markets. “People criticize us because they think we incentivize active trading and prediction markets,” Tenev said. “If you look at what we actually incentivize, it’s retirement.”

Eligible Robinhood Gold customers receive a 3% match on retirement contributions. Retirement assets under custody reached $34.5 billion in the second quarter, rising 82% from the previous year. 

Tenev remains bullish on Bitcoin over the long term but declined to predict whether it could hit $1 million. “Bitcoin was the original meme coin,” he said. “You can create lots of imitators, but nobody can take the position of being first and most trusted.” He also said “alarm bells have started ringing” after Robinhood customers suddenly began demanding access to Korean stocks, which had not previously ranked among their leading requests.

How Do Retail Traders Feel About HOOD?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for HOOD was ‘bullish’ amid a 124% jump in 24-hour message volumes.

One user said, “$HOOD-  Stock in a tight channel on the weekly time frame. Looking for breakout above $110 for a bigger move towards $115 and higher.Stock is decent at the indicator level.”

View this Stocktwits post

Another user said, “$HOOD this is a financial weapon, brokerage king, and a future of nothing but positives for what is turning into an avid investment cited world. Hood is at the forefront.”

View this Stocktwits post

HOOD stock has risen 2% over the past year. 

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.<