Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev Talks 3Q Earnings, Prediction Markets

Summary

Bloomberg Talks Podcast Summary

Episode: Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev Talks 3Q Earnings, Prediction Markets
Date: November 6, 2025
Host: Ed Ludlow (Bloomberg Tech Co-Anchor)
Guest: Vlad Tenev (CEO, Robinhood)

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Overview

This episode centers on Robinhood’s impressive third-quarter earnings, drilling down on the company’s growth drivers, evolving product strategy, and growing footprint in prediction markets. CEO Vlad Tenev discusses Robinhood’s broadening appeal across generations, product innovation, and the roadmap to diversify revenue between retail, institutional, and global markets.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Strong Q3 Performance and October Momentum

• Record Financials: Robinhood posted a substantial profit increase, with net income up 271% to $556 million, underpinned by record net deposits and trading revenues.
• Sustained Engagement: Tenev attributes performance to what he calls the “Robinhood flywheel”—more users, deeper engagement, more premium subscriptions (Gold), and increasing trading volumes.

  “October has been a continued strong month…record net deposits, record trading revenues. Revenues across the board. Prediction markets have also been on fire.”
  — Vlad Tenev (01:27)

2. Market Trends and Robinhood’s Strategic Positioning

• Market Share Focus: While acknowledging that trading volumes fluctuate, Tenev emphasizes Robinhood’s growing market share and asset base.

  “We track our market share, which has been growing pretty much across the board, across every asset. We’re now up to a third of a trillion in assets held at Robinhood.”
  — Vlad Tenev (03:24)

• Secular Tailwinds: He cites generational wealth transfer and the tech-savvy nature of younger investors as key growth factors, positioning Robinhood at the center of this shift.
• Platform for the Next Generation: Robinhood is targeting digitally native individuals who prioritize user experience and cost, but Tenev notes the platform transcends age—appealing even to users in their 70s and 80s.

3. Growth in Prediction Markets

• Expanding Offerings: The prediction markets, especially in sports and event-based contracts, have seen explosive growth—October alone eclipsed the prior quarter’s total activity.

  “Prediction markets…completes the time at which Robinhood customers can continue to engage with the platform…Robinhood is becoming increasingly a 24/7 platform.”
  — Vlad Tenev (04:30)

• 24/7 Engagement: Introduction of crypto and prediction markets has moved Robinhood towards around-the-clock engagement, not just limited to regular equities market hours.

4. The Financial Super App Vision

• Comprehensive Product Depth & Velocity: Tenev touts the breadth and “velocity” of product launches, from banking and credit cards to retirement accounts and digital advising.

  “Nobody has our combination of product depth and product velocity…We still have a huge amount left to build.”
  — Vlad Tenev (06:15)

• Innovative Fee Structure: Robinhood Strategies (digital advisor) inverts traditional fee models to reward customers for growing their assets on the platform—no management fee above $100,000.

5. Targeting Families and Multi-Generational Users

• Family-Focused Super App: Robinhood sees itself as a platform for entire families, aiming to create products recognized by multiple generations.

6. Roadmap to Institutional and International Growth

• 10-Year Plan: Robinhood aims for over half of its revenue to eventually come from institutions and international markets.
• Retail-Led Innovation Drives Institutional Interest: Despite this ambition, Tenev asserts that expanding and perfecting retail offerings is foundational because institutions increasingly want the same features—user experience, 24/5 access, competitive rates.

  “Pretty much nobody has a unified offering between crypto and traditional assets, which I think is being increasingly valuable.”
  — Vlad Tenev (08:15)

• Early Progress: The acquisition of Bitstamp marked Robinhood’s 10th business line to surpass $100 million in annualized revenue; prediction markets recently became the 11th.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Generational Wealth Transfer:
  “Hundreds north of 100 trillion of assets and wealth is going to be handed down from older generations to younger generations…Robinhood is really at the center.”
  — Vlad Tenev (03:07)

• On Platform Relevance:
  “If you’re using any other platform, I feel like you should be at a disadvantage.”
  — Vlad Tenev (05:27)

• On Fee Innovation:
  “Robinhood Strategies inverts that model and once you get to 100,000 managed, everything above that has no management fee. So the incentive is actually to grow with us.”
  — Vlad Tenev (06:54)

• On Institutional Offering:
  “The things that we’re offering to retail…are things that institutional wants as well.”
  — Vlad Tenev (08:07)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |-------------------------------------|:-------------:| | Robinhood’s Q3 performance recap | 00:29–01:27 | | Trends driving October results | 01:27–02:20 | | Market share and generational shift | 02:20–04:11 | | Prediction markets explodes in Oct. | 04:11–06:00 | | Financial super app/product depth | 06:00–07:30 | | Roadmap to institutional/international | 07:30–09:04 |

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Takeaways

• Robinhood is experiencing broad-based growth in users and product lines, with a keen focus on continuing retail innovation as a pathway to institutional and global expansion.
• Its leadership sees major opportunity in the coming generational wealth transfer and the need for modern, unified digital financial services.
• Prediction markets and 24/7 engagement are critical new frontiers.
• By inverting fee structures and emphasizing digital experience, Robinhood aims to make itself essential for both individuals and institutions.

This episode offers candid insight into how Robinhood views its role at the heart of changing financial markets and generational wealth dynamics.

Transcript

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[Bloomberg Announcer]

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[Bloomberg News Anchor]

News Robinhood did have a third quarter profit beat net income up 271% to 556 million. Crypto revenue, however, did fall short of estimates. That was even though it jumped 300%. So the market was expecting quite a bit there. But Robinhood shares a little bit softer after hours. Let's get more now. Bring in Bloomberg Tech co anchor Ed Ludlow in San Francisco.

[Ed Ludlow]

Ed, yeah, thank you team. And believe it or not, you find me downtown at an in person earnings call of all things, where not just the institutional sell side participates, but the institutional buy side, the retail buy side and Robinhood's customers. They all got to pose questions to Vlad Teneff, Robinhood CEO There's a lot of emphasis on October, strong third quarter. Got that? October, October, October. So I think the best place to start is take us through through the lens of your customers. What was happening in October, the underlying trends, the behaviors that you're seeing.

[Vlad Tenev]

I mean, first of all, thank you for being here with us in person to celebrate retail investors being a big part of the financial markets. October has been a continued strong month. I think you noticed Q3 was particularly strong. You know, record net deposits, record trading revenues. Revenues across the board. Prediction markets have also been on fire. So what you're seeing is continued sustained engagement powered by the Robinhood flywheel. More customers, deeper engagement, more gold subscribers bringing more assets. And the trading volumes have continued to increase as well. So it's just been strong across the board. I would say there's not one area that's particular outlier, but continued strength across the board.

[Ed Ludlow]

Markets are a tailwind for Robinhood. Right. And so my question is what is and where is the natural embedded hedge? If markets turn on, you change direction, what happens?

[Vlad Tenev]

It's a good question. And we try not to get so hung up on output metrics like trading volumes because trading volumes, as we've seen in the past, do tend to fluctuate with market activity. That said, what we look at is our market share. And we know that, you know, even though trading volumes can go with markets and can go up and down long term, we're huge beneficiaries of both the growth in the US Economy and Also the generational wealth transfer, where Hundreds north of 100 trillion of assets and wealth is going to be handed down from, from older generations to younger generations. These younger generations are folks that are digitally native, tech savvy. They don't particularly want to do their finances at brick and mortar institutions in person. And they really value user experience and cost. And so I think we track our market share, which has been growing pretty much across the board, across every asset. We're now up to a third of a trillion in assets held at Robinhood, which has been extraordinary in terms of growth as well. And then there's these secular tailwinds of, you know, the US economy still remains the hotbed of innovation. It's where it's the epicenter of AI, electric vehicles innovation. And I think young people are going to be the generation inheriting all of this wealth. So Robin is really at the center.

[Ed Ludlow]

Of young people and generation that's driving what you're seeing in prediction markets. I don't want to recount the data too much though, but just in the month of October, contracts and predictions have eclipsed what you did in the entire third quarter, so. So maybe talking about some of the underlying trends and activity would give us a better understanding of who's driving it and what's happening.

[Vlad Tenev]

Yeah, that's right, Ed. I think the interesting thing about prediction markets is it rounds out the offering and sort of like completes the time at which Robinhood customers can continue to engage with the platform. For a while we were offering predominantly US equities, which was very much a US east coast working hours type of event. Markets are open 9 to 4 east coast east coast hours. And then we've expanded that over time with us introducing 24 hour market. We've added crypto and now prediction markets. A lot of the events, particularly in sports, are happening nights and weekends. So Robinhood is becoming increasingly a 247 platform where you can trade and invest in global markets at all times of the day. And I think our customers do tend to be digitally native and quite savvy. That tends to lean younger. But we also have customers that are in their 70s and 80s. And as long as you're comfortable doing your finances on a mobile device and you want to be at the frontier of technology, I think it's something that transcends just young people. Of course, we always want to be relevant to the next generation. But. But Robinhood, I feel like you should be at a disadvantage if you're using any other platform.

[Ed Ludlow]

I think that's increasingly your competition is Sleeping on this a little bit, right, that you think you can build the financial super app for an entire family, multiple generations to participate in different products and categories. Why have you got an advantage in going after that?

[Vlad Tenev]

Well, I think that nobody has our combination of product depth and product velocity. So we have a lot of products. We still have a huge amount left to build. But if you think about what we offer now, I think we have the best banking product out on the market that's being rolled out. I think we have the best credit card with 3% cash back on all categories. That just passed half a million cardholders and 8 billion in annualized spend. We've always been strong across investing and trading and now retirement as well. You know, 25 billion of assets that customers are entrusting with us in retirement accounts, that is a big number and this is like very serious long term money. I think we have the best digital advisor with Robinhood Strategies, where every other advisor charges you more the more money you have on the platform. Robinhood Strategies inverts that model and once you get to 100,000 managed, everything above that has no management fee. So the incentive is actually to grow with us. And we want to make it a no brainer to have all of your assets under Robinhood.

[Ed Ludlow]

This is very much targeted the individual. You have a 10 year plan where within 10 years you want more than half of revenue to come from the institutional side and from international markets, not just the United States States. So what's the roadmap to get there?

[Vlad Tenev]

Yeah, I mean, I think that somewhat paradoxically you might not expect this, but.

[Ed Ludlow]

The roadmap, it is paradoxical.

[Vlad Tenev]

Well, the roadmap is really continuing to build for retail for the time being because when we talk to our institutional potential customers, actually a lot of them are in this room and they've come up and they said we would love to use you guys for an institutional offering. You know, they might be using a legacy provider where they can't trade 24,5 or they're not getting good stock loan rates or the margin rates are not good. And pretty much nobody has a unified offering between crypto and traditional assets, which I think is being increasingly valuable. So the things that we're offering to retail, rock bottom margin rates, great user experience, 24 hour access to all markets are things that institutional wants as well. Well, and I think for the time being we're in this great position. We have so much to do on retail that we want to stay very focused for that. But we have been building out our institutional business with Bitstamp, which is now, you know, was the 10th business line to get to above 100 million in annualized revenue, prediction markets being the 11th. So I think before long you'll see that really continue to accelerate and become a bigger chunk of what we're offering.

[Ed Ludlow]

Vlad Tenev is the Robinhood CEO and as he just pointed to prediction markets also hit 100 million ISE, 100 million annualized revenue and I think run rate wise, 300 million. A lot of focus on that right now.

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