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Robinhood got its $32-billion IPO after it parlayed a Wall Street rebel image into a way for the Wall Street elite to cash in

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based phenom's founders become billionaires but Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan get their cut of the IPO, and the bulk of the trade spreads go to the Street's giant trading houses like Citadel and others

Author Oisin Breen July 29, 2021 at 6:26 PM
1 Comment
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In just eight years Robinhood co-founders Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt have steered the start-up to a $30 billion IPO.

Technology


JC

JC

August 2, 2021 — 3:17 PM
I appreciate this article very much. Have always been troubled by RH's approach of blatantly breaking the rules, knowing that whatever fines the regulators impose are just peanuts compared to the billions they will are now seeing from the IPO. There are so many issues with their model. PFOF gets all of the press, but no one focuses on other stuff like: Customers are opted into a margin account (so they can loan out securities for revenue). Who does that? By virtue of the fact that their customers flock to the volatile stocks, that is a hugely lucrative source of revenue. Also, the option trading is finally getting the scrutiny it deserves. The way anyone with a pulse (and no experience) could get approved for options trading was so wrong, but again a huge source of profit for them - much more so than PFOF on stocks.

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May 6, 2025 at 12:42 AM

In 'forced-evolution,' Robinhood subtracts a co-founder and pivots to credit cards to create captive sales that dried up after its phone-app trading platform and zero-commission novelty act imploded

Co-founder Baiju Bhatt exits management, but Deepak Rao is just getting started as CEO Vlad Tenev goes all in on making Robinhood a credit card company.

March 29, 2024 at 5:02 AM

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July 26, 2023 at 2:34 AM

Robinhood shares spike 25% after CEO Vlad Tenev finally goes back on the attack against Acorns, Fidelity, and Schwabitrade by adding their tricks and features to its quiver

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