With so many technology stacks available, why did Robinhood choose Arbitrum for their chain deployment?

Author: Haotian

A brief interpretation of the news that @RobinhoodApp plans to build a layer2 on Arbitrum:

1. From a technical perspective, Robinhood choosing Arbitrum’s Nitro is no different from Coinbase initially choosing the Optimism OP Stack technology. But the performance of Base has already proven a pattern: the success of the tech stack does not equal the success of the main chain. The rise of Base is more a result of Coinbase’s brand effect + compliance resources + user traffic diversion, which in some ways also provides guidance for Robinhood’s positioning on Arbitrum. This means that in the short term, it cannot prove that $ARB’s price is undervalued (compared to $OP’s performance), but in the long term, once Robinhood’s targeted “U.S. stock on-chain” scenario is successful, it could change the awkward situation where layer2 is just a technical extension without real implementation for Ethereum layer1, opening up an unprecedented macro path for Mass Adoption in the Ethereum ecosystem’s L1+L2.

2. Coinbase’s layer2 solutions are mostly general-purpose layer2, mainly continuing the previous transaction-oriented scenarios like DeFi, GameFi, MEME, etc., but Robinhood might take a different approach this time, focusing on specialized layer2, creating a tailored on-chain infrastructure for traditional finance? Although OP-Rollup can achieve sub-second transaction confirmation times, these transactions still fall within the optimistic Rollup scope with 7-day fraud verification. Robinhood’s new layer2 needs to handle features like T+0 stock settlement, real-time risk control, and compliance, which may require deep customization at the virtual machine layer, consensus mechanism, and data structures, fully exploiting the potential of layer2 scaling solutions.

3) Compared to Optimism, Arbitrum’s technical solutions are more mature: Nitro’s WASM architecture offers higher execution efficiency and has natural advantages for complex financial calculations; Stylus supports multi-language development of high-performance contracts, capable of handling some heavy computations in traditional finance; BoLD addresses malicious delay attacks, strengthening the security of optimistic validation; Orbit supports customizable Layer3 deployment, providing enough flexibility for development features. You see, if Arbitrum is chosen, it must have its reasons—its technical advantages seem to meet the demanding “customization” requirements of traditional finance infrastructure, unlike OP Stack, which only needs to run. This also makes a lot of sense, because when facing the ultimate challenge of supporting trillion-dollar TradFi businesses, the maturity and professionalism of the technology will determine success or failure.

4. U.S. stocks on-chain and tokenized stock exchanges are no longer just the “token issuance narrative and game” commonly used in the traditional crypto space. They face more than just speculative users who trade tokens without regard for project delivery or user experience. When gas fluctuations cause network congestion and transaction delays, users familiar with traditional financial products—who are used to millisecond responses, 24/7 uninterrupted service, and T+0 seamless settlement—will find it absolutely intolerable. These traditional finance users are accustomed to smooth experiences with high system stability, backed by institutional funds, algorithmic trading, and high-frequency strategies. This means Robinhood’s layer2 user base will be entirely different and highly challenging.

That’s all. In summary, Robinhood’s move to deploy layer2 will be very significant. It’s no longer just adding another player to the layer2 tech stack, but a hardcore experiment to verify whether crypto infrastructure can support the core business of modern finance. If successful, the digital reconstruction of the entire trillion-dollar TradFi markets—bonds, futures, insurance, real estate—will accelerate. In the long run, this will also benefit the application scenarios of the entire Ethereum L1+L2 ecosystem and redefine the value capture logic of Layer2.