NEW YORK, December 30, 2025, 16:55 ET — After-hours
- Robinhood closed down 1.7% on Tuesday and was little changed after hours.
- The brokerage posted preliminary December month-to-date trading volumes through Dec. 28.
- Needham cut its price target on the stock while keeping a Buy rating.
Robinhood Markets closed down 1.7% at $115.45 on Tuesday, after touching $118.57 earlier in the session. Shares were little changed in after-hours trading.
The move follows a late-day update from the online brokerage on how much customers have traded so far this month, a metric investors use as a quick read on momentum. Robinhood’s transaction revenue rises and falls with activity, particularly in options and crypto.
The timing matters because Wall Street has been debating whether retail trading is cooling into year-end after a volatile stretch for digital assets. Needham on Monday lowered its price target on Robinhood to $135 from $145 but kept a Buy rating, citing expected weakness in crypto trading volumes for the next couple of quarters. 1
In its update, Robinhood said equity notional trading volume — the dollar value of trades — was about $170 billion from Dec. 1 through Dec. 28, and options contracts traded totaled about 179 million; one options contract typically represents 100 shares. Crypto notional volume was about $19 billion, including roughly $7 billion on the Robinhood app and about $12 billion at Bitstamp, while event contracts traded through its prediction-markets hub totaled about 2.6 billion, the company said. Those event contracts, a form of prediction market, trade between 1 cent and $1 and pay out $1 at settlement; Robinhood said the figures are unaudited and preliminary ahead of its full-year and fourth-quarter earnings release. 2
Because the tally runs through Dec. 28, it excludes the final few days of month-end trading. That matters in a holiday week when liquidity can be thin and activity can swing on short notice.
U.S. stocks ended slightly lower in light trading on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 down 0.1% and the Nasdaq off 0.2%. The softer tape left less room for high-beta names such as Robinhood to catch a bid. 3
“The growth rates are going to converge between technology and everything else next year,” said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide, describing a broader year-end repositioning. That push-and-pull has shown up across growth and finance-linked stocks. 4
Crypto prices were steadier on the day, with bitcoin up about 1.1%, while Coinbase fell about 0.9%. Traders often treat Robinhood as part of that crypto-exposed complex because a meaningful share of its activity and sentiment is tied to digital assets.
Investors will now parse the mix: options and crypto tend to carry higher transaction revenue for brokerages than plain-stock trading. Much of that revenue comes from bid-ask spreads (the gap between what buyers pay and sellers receive) and “payment for order flow,” where market makers pay brokers to route trades.
The next focal point is the company’s full December operating data and its fourth-quarter and full-year report, when Robinhood will reconcile the preliminary snapshot with audited results. Traders will also watch for any updated commentary on crypto activity, options demand and the durability of the newer event-contract business.
Needham’s note underscored that, even when crypto prices stabilize, retail trading volumes can lag until momentum returns. That puts added pressure on the rest of Robinhood’s product set to keep engagement up through early 2026. 1
For now, Tuesday’s update offered a partial read on December — and a reminder that Robinhood’s stock can move quickly when the market gets new signals on customer activity.
