Episode summary
Robinhood & Lighter: Why Wall Street Is Moving Onchain
Forward Guidance
· · Hosts: Felix · Guests: Johann Kerbrat, Vlad Novakovski
Summary
Robinhood’s Johann Kerbrat and Lighter’s Vlad Novakovski argued that finance is moving onchain because the technology has matured, regulators are more receptive, and products can now match TradFi expectations for speed and security. They said that 24/7 and extended-hours trading are pulling demand forward, especially because activity often happens outside exchange hours and over weekends.
A major theme was perpetual futures. Both guests said perps are becoming mainstream because they let traders go long or short, use leverage, and manage capital more efficiently than older structures like CFDs. Vlad Novakovski said the form factor is especially natural for crypto, but can also extend to commodities and pre-IPO markets, even if those listings create tricky questions around settlement, implied market cap, and regulation. Johann Kerbrat added that Robinhood wants perps to sit alongside options and stock tokens inside a broader product stack.
They also focused on the US regulatory path. The guests said the CFTC and SEC are making progress, but the goal is to avoid a weaker onchain product with slower settlement or clunky clearing. Robinhood’s early Robinhood Chain data, they said, shows that removing complexity and embedding the experience in the main app is already driving engagement.
Key takeaways
- Johann Kerbrat said Robinhood sees more than 70% of stock-token volume happening outside exchange open hours, mostly on weekends and overnight.
- Vlad Novakovski argued that 24/7 markets can still work if liquidity falls back to AMM-style structures when market makers step away.
- Johann Kerbrat said perps are attractive because they are not like CFDs: they use a clear order book rather than a broker betting against the customer.
- Vlad Novakovski said pre-IPO perps raise open questions about regulation, settlement, and how to define the market’s unit of account.
- Johann Kerbrat said Robinhood wants a US framework that avoids creating an inferior version of onchain perps with slower clearing and settlement.
Notable quotes
“the future of finance is going to be onchain and we want to build the infrastructure for that”
“the 247 element, the instance element elements are are big reason for institution to start adopting these type of products”
“more than 70% of the volume uh is then and that really shows to you that um the world is global”
“it's a clear order book you don't have you're not betting against the house like a like a CFD is”
How the episode opens
Nothing said on Ford guidance is a recommendation to buy or sell any investments or products. All right, good morning everybody. Welcome to the first digital asset summit Asia edition.
We are excited to be here live in Singapore uh on the first day of here and it's very excited to be talking about bringing onchain markets into the mainstream which I think is one of the most dominant trends of 2026. So, it's really exciting, really excited to be joined uh today by both of you. Would love to just uh have you both introduce yourselves and a bit of uh what you do and and what your focus is on within the context of of bringing onchain markets into the mainstream.
Uh Johan, maybe we can start with you.
Yeah, so I'm John. I lead the crypto business at Robin Hood. I've been at the company for about six years and really trying to push the company to expand also on chain and that's why we launched the Robin chain about three months ago.
I'm Vlad, founder CEO of Lighter. uh started my career in uh Tradfi many years ago you know at at Citadel and I've been working on startups for the last little while you know we've been building lighter for four years now uh and from the beginning the mission was always that you know the future of finance is going to be onchain and we want to build the infrastructure for that
Amazing um I feel like right now this idea of onchain of traditional assets coming on chain is really just this moment of of convergence in many ways um on on one side of of the equation, you have a lot of the the traditional finance world that is starting to be more interested in what we've been developing within the the digital asset space and on the other side of things, you're seeing, you know, digital native products start to explore more RWAs and and the traditional asset side of things.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- onchain markets
- 24/7 trading liquidity
- perps versus cfds
- cftc path for us perps
- robinhood chain learnings
Companies and tickers mentioned
- HOOD
- Robinhood
- Lighter
- Robinhood Chain
Watch the episode
Watch “Robinhood & Lighter: Why Wall Street Is Moving Onchain” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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