New York, April 29, 2026, 07:06 ET
- Robinhood stock slid roughly 10% in premarket trading, with first-quarter profit and revenue both coming in below Wall Street’s expectations.
- Crypto revenue tumbled 47% year-over-year, but both customer deposits and Gold subscriptions continued to climb.
- Robinhood now faces pressure to show that moves into banking, prediction markets, and other new offerings can help even out its bumpy trading revenues.
Robinhood Markets tumbled roughly 10% before the opening bell Wednesday, with investors reacting to a miss on both first-quarter profit and revenue. The online broker took a hit as cryptocurrency trading—one of the platform’s top revenue drivers—slowed down, dragging results below expectations.
Robinhood’s earnings shortfall is drawing attention, coming at a time when the company wants to convince investors it’s not just a play on volatile trading surges like those during the pandemic. Crypto’s been hit hard this year—bitcoin has dropped over 30% in the last six months, as noted by Reuters—so retail trading has slumped right when the market’s been watching for more predictable growth from Robinhood.
Customer numbers weren’t the issue. The real miss came from revenue capture. Robinhood’s transaction-based revenue—its take from user trading—landed at $623 million, a 7% gain, but still missed the $728.2 million analysts surveyed by LSEG had been looking for. Profit clocked in at $346 million, or 38 cents per share, falling short of the 44-cent consensus.
Robinhood reported a 15% climb in total net revenue year over year, hitting $1.07 billion. Net income ticked up 3%, with diluted earnings per share also up 3% at 38 cents. On the downside, cryptocurrency revenue plunged 47% to $134 million, pulling against higher returns in equities, options, and other transaction lines.
Event contracts—essentially prediction-market bets on real-world outcomes—stood out. Robinhood’s “other transaction revenue,” driven mostly by event contracts, surged 320% to $147 million. Options revenue increased 8%. Equities revenue was up 46%. GlobeNewswire
Analysts didn’t see that as sufficient. Morningstar highlighted crypto trading as a “particular pressure point” for the first quarter, and over at Raymond James, analysts pointed to choppier trading volumes and flagged “retail investor exhaustion.” Reuters
Chief Financial Officer Shiv Verma addressed some of the worry, arguing that the dip in take rates—the cut Robinhood earns per trade—was tied to increased trading by active clients on tiered pricing. “When active traders trade more, take rates naturally go down,” Verma said during the earnings call. The Motley Fool
Robinhood flagged a strong start in April. According to Verma, equity and options trading volumes are pacing for the year’s best showing and could notch the company’s second-biggest month ever. Net deposits? Those have already hit roughly $5 billion so far this month.
Broader numbers looked solid. Robinhood reported total platform assets at $307 billion, up 39%. Net deposits landed at $17.7 billion. Gold subscribers—Robinhood’s paid membership for perks like higher-yield cash and extra account features—jumped 36% to a record 4.3 million.
Chief Executive Vlad Tenev described the quarter as proof Robinhood is turning into a broader financial platform, stating it’s “increasingly positioned at the center of our customers’ financial lives.” Robinhood reported its Banking arm surpassed $2 billion in deposits, with over 125,000 funded customers. GlobeNewswire
The landscape’s only getting more crowded. According to Reuters, crypto-focused exchanges plus established players like Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE are moving in, tightening the squeeze on Robinhood’s trading volumes and share. KBW analysts see crypto rivalry set to “ratchet up.” Reuters
The risk is obvious. Crypto volumes stay sluggish, or take rates slip as activity climbs—then Robinhood will have to lean harder on banking, subscriptions, and prediction markets for growth. The company bumped up its 2026 adjusted operating expense and share-based comp guidance to a range of $2.7 billion to $2.825 billion, attributing an extra $100 million to new spending for Trump Accounts, those government-backed investment accounts for kids.
Robinhood’s cash pile remains sizable, with $5 billion in cash and equivalents on hand. The company bought back $250 million worth of stock during the quarter. Its board signed off on a new $1.5 billion repurchase plan, stretching out over roughly three years.
