Robinhood launches AI agents, perpetual futures trading, and weekend trading to capture active trader segment.
DeFi & Yields ·
Robinhood unveiled three major product expansions at its Houston summit: AI agents powered by OpenAI or Anthropic models that can execute trades autonomously, crypto perpetual futures with up to 10 times leverage on bitcoin and ether for eligible U.S. customers, and weekend trading in select U.S. stocks and ETFs. The brokerage is also extending options trading hours and adding intraday margin availability. These moves reflect Robinhood's stated priority to become the top platform for active traders, according to the company's vice president of product management.
The strategy targets a competitive landscape where traditional brokers including Charles Schwab, Interactive Brokers, and Fidelity have expanded their offerings to match the 24/7 trading expectations set by crypto markets. Robinhood's weekend trading will operate through Bruce ATS, an alternative trading system, filling a gap left by its 24 Hour Market launched in 2023, which does not operate on weekends. The AI agents feature allows users to select a model, grant it access to a separate trading account, and eventually set standing instructions via a "Loops" capability to automate strategy execution when specified conditions occur.
Robinhood reports that over 150,000 agentic accounts have been created since opening its trading infrastructure to external AI agents earlier this year, generating millions of tool calls. However, it remains unclear how extensively users will adopt these new products or whether the expanded hours and automated trading tools will meaningfully capture market share from competitors.