Robinhood to Introduce Perpetual Futures for US Customers
Robinhood is preparing to launch perpetual futures contracts for eligible customers in the United States within the coming months. The move signals an expansion of the trading platform’s offerings into more complex derivatives.
CEO Touts “First True Perps”
CEO Vlad Tenev announced the upcoming product on X, formerly Twitter, stating that Robinhood is bringing “America’s first true perps” to market. He noted that profits and losses on these contracts will be settled every 15 minutes. The announcement was made Tuesday at the company’s HOOD Summit in Houston.
Expanded Crypto Offerings
Customers will have the ability to go long or short on a range of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP, Dogecoin (DOGE), Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), and Hype (HYPE).
A perpetual future is a type of leveraged contract that mirrors an asset’s price without a fixed expiration date, allowing traders to maintain positions as long as they can cover potential losses. Robinhood’s Bitcoin and Ethereum contracts will offer up to 10x leverage, while the other six cryptocurrencies will be capped at 3x leverage. Robinhood Derivatives will provide these contracts in partnership with Bitstamp.
Competitive Trading Costs and Features
The trading platform is introducing a promotional fee of one basis point (0.01%) per trade through the end of the year, which Robinhood claims is among the lowest in the industry. Additionally, users will be able to set stop-loss and take-profit orders, monitor their liquidation price in real-time, and receive alerts when a position is at risk.
“Ownership doesn’t work without markets, and markets don’t work without traders,” Tenev said, emphasizing Robinhood’s ambition to become “the best place in the world for active traders” by providing tools previously accessible only to institutional investors.
AI Tools and Earnings Contracts
In parallel, Robinhood has unveiled an in-app artificial intelligence tool called Robinhood Agents. This feature is designed to assist customers in developing trading strategies, researching markets, and executing trades within predefined limits, with manual trade approval enabled by default. Since its launch in May, over 15,000 users have reportedly opened agentic trading accounts, with agents interacting with Robinhood tools nearly 30 million times daily.
The firm is also introducing earnings contracts linked to company performance metrics such as revenue targets and earnings results. These binary options contracts will be available through Cboe and will require options trading approval.
Broader Industry Trends
Robinhood’s move into derivatives is part of a wider trend in the financial industry. Notably, Coinbase filed registrations with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in early September to offer single-stock perpetual futures to American investors, though a launch timeline has not been confirmed.
Competitors are also expanding their derivatives offerings. Bybit, for instance, launched forex perpetuals on September 8, allowing leverage of up to 100x and operating 24/7, a significantly higher leverage ceiling than Robinhood’s 10x.
It is important for traders to remember that perpetual futures carry funding costs and liquidation risks, as positions can be closed if losses exceed a certain threshold. Robinhood has not yet provided a specific launch date for its perpetual futures, only indicating “the coming months.”
