Hi! Eric here.

The race is on.

When Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev took to the stage underneath a blazing Cannes sun this week, he did two things.

Firstly, he unveiled a smattering of crypto products the trading platform plans to roll out in the US and Europe. 

Secondly, he upped the ante in Wall Street’s campaign to secure total crypto dominance. 

Robinhood’s announcement — which included launching crypto and tokenised stock trading across the EU and its own blockchain — puts it straight on a collision course with not just crypto companies, but also fintech powerhouses such as Revolut vying for a slice of the $3.4 trillion crypto market. 

Take Kraken. 

A mere two hours before Tenev took the stage, the Wyoming-headquartered crypto exchange unveiled its own tokenised stock-trading service.

Kraken also has a native blockchain, called Ink, which it launched, last year. The blockchain only has $7.6 million sloshing around, however, according to DefiLlama. 

Rival exchange Coinbase’s blockchain Base boasts almost $3.5 billion, for context.

And now Robinhood’s entering the fray, too?

You could understand why Kraken would be worried about being reduced to calamari. 

Robinhood’s announcement should also be viewed in a broader context, where the line between traditional and blockchain-based finance is beginning to blur.

Just a few years ago, these two realms were kept strictly separate. 

Now, banking giants like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo are seemingly jumping over each other to launch their own stablecoins.

Elsewhere, $11.5 trillion investment giant BlackRock is increasingly cashing in with its Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, while CEO Larry Fink repeatedly muses about the opportunities of tokenised assets. 

In fact, when I spoke with crypto-focused venture capital investors last week, they told me that they are particularly interested in projects that bridge the realms of crypto and fintech, to the point of them becoming almost inextinguishable from each other. 

In short, the tides have turned, and competition to stay afloat is about to get fierce.

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While Tenev’s announcement made a lot of crypto traders excited, his suit also caught plenty of attention.

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