Unlocking Opportunity: Robinhood Expands Global Crypto Footprint with Game-Changing U.S. Stock Tokens!
CANNES — After a decade and a half away, Johann Kerbrat has returned to the region where it all began. Once flipping burgers at a McDonald’s and coding at night from a cramped apartment near the French Riviera, Kerbrat now serves as senior vice president and crypto general manager at Robinhood. Back when he was just 21, he had no funding, no connections, and no formal business education, yet he possessed a unique talent for programming and an unwavering ambition to tackle real-world challenges.
Before starting university in Nice, Kerbrat abandoned his job to launch his first fintech startup, a no-code payment solution designed to empower small merchants to create e-commerce sites without needing developers. “It was in my little studio — probably smaller than your bathroom,” he recalled. “At that time, if you were a merchant, you had to hire an agency and spend tens of thousands of euros. Our goal was to let people build their own platforms without technical knowledge — similar to what Shopify does now.”
The early 2010s ushered in a boom for online commerce, and Kerbrat’s tool provided a vital lifeline for small merchants trying to compete. This experience also shed light on the fragility of the global financial system. A classmate from Greece shared how his family’s bank accounts were frozen during the eurozone crisis. Around the same period, merchants using Kerbrat’s platform faced issues with exorbitant fees and fraud. This backdrop set the stage for his epiphany when he encountered the Bitcoin white paper. “I thought, ‘Okay, that’s a solution for everything,’ ” he said.
Now, from the Château de la Croix des Gardes, a Belle Époque mansion that overlooks the same coastline where he once worked late shifts, Kerbrat is integral to Robinhood’s most ambitious crypto product suite yet. The company recently announced an expanded offering that includes tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs across Europe, crypto staking in the U.S., perpetual futures for eligible EU traders, and a new Layer 2 blockchain designed for real-world asset settlement and 24/7 trading. “It’s absolutely surreal,” Kerbrat stated while seated in the iconic Carlton Hotel, a landmark he once thought was beyond his reach.
These announcements coincide with the Ethereum Community Conference taking place in Cannes for the first time, along with Robinhood’s latest regulatory approvals across Europe. The company’s moves signal a serious effort to integrate traditional finance with blockchain infrastructure. Following this announcement, Robinhood shares soared, more than doubling in value this year.
Kerbrat emphasized that the aim is not to showcase flashy features but to make crypto an unobtrusive aspect of everyday life. “You don’t think about how water gets to your tap,” he explained. “You just expect it to be there.” Nevertheless, there remains work to be done. The newly launched tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs, first built on Arbitrum, offer users 24/5 access, dividend support, and zero commissions. A future migration to a custom Layer 2 blockchain will enhance functionalities further.
In the U.S., Robinhood is introducing staking for Ethereum and Solana, providing users with rewards in exchange for supporting network operations. European customers can look forward to crypto perpetual futures that offer up to 3x leverage. Other enhancements, including smart exchange routing and advanced charting tools, are designed to make crypto trading as intuitive as stock trading.
Reflecting on his journey, Kerbrat cherishes his return to Cannes, where his technology odyssey began. With a father in IT and a mother who nurtured him and his sister, his interest in programming was ignited early. By the age of 17, he was already attempting to mend what he perceived as flaws in the internet economy. As he prepares for this new chapter, even his parents, who attended the launch, recall those formative days in their son’s tiny apartment with a single computer.
Kerbrat concluded, “We chose Cannes because of licensing and the conference, but it feels good to be back. I never thought I’d return here like this.”
Original Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/30/robinhood-crypto-cannes.html
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Publish Date: 2025-06-30 22:22:00
