Key Takeaways:
Robinhood Markets gained 5% to $99.90 and Webull rose 2% to $9.07 Friday as Bitcoin broke above its months-long $60,000-$70,000 range to $77,118.89.
"We delivered record revenues and drove new highs across equity, option, and event contract volumes," Robinhood CFO Shiv Verma said on the July 29 earnings call, as the platform's revenue mix shifts beyond crypto.
The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF climbed 6% to $43.69, giving the cleanest read on the underlying breakout. Bitcoin jumped 7% over 24 hours to $77,118.89, its highest since late May, while Ethereum rose 5% to $2,384.78. The S&P 500 gained 0.29% and the NASDAQ 100 rose 0.26%, confirming crypto beta drove the move rather than broad-market strength.
Robinhood carries a $75.19 billion market cap with 28.4 million funded customers and roughly $369 billion in platform assets. The firm owns the Bitstamp cryptocurrency exchange and WonderFi, operates Robinhood Chain, and generates direct crypto revenue. Webull, at a $3.96 billion market cap with 28 million registered users across 18 markets, derives revenue primarily from equity and option order flow rebates and margin interest, making its crypto read-through less direct.
President Trump used a White House summit this week to urge Congress to advance the CLARITY Act, which would establish a clearer regulatory framework for the U.S. crypto industry. Congress has repeatedly stalled on the bill over how to classify cryptocurrencies and how to treat yields generated by stablecoins.
Adding to the tailwind, the U.S. Treasury announced plans to double its bond buybacks to contain rising yields, after a selloff pushed the 30-year Treasury yield to its highest level since 2007. The intervention improved risk appetite broadly and gave Bitcoin an added push into today's breakout.
Even after this rally, Bitcoin sits down 15.8% year to date, and IBIT has fallen 17% YTD. Today's move nonetheless resets short-term expectations across crypto-linked equities.
Robinhood's crypto stack is a bigger share of its story. In Q2, crypto transaction revenue totaled $100 million, down 38% year over year, while options revenue reached $342 million, up 29%, and event contracts generated $156 million, up more than tenfold. The firm also owns Bitstamp and WonderFi and operates Robinhood Chain.
Webull's revenue is driven primarily by equity and option order flow rebates and by interest income from margin lending and client cash balances. Digital assets are one category among global stocks, ETFs, options, futures, and fractional shares. That read-through from a Bitcoin rally is therefore less direct than at Robinhood.
Webull shares had already rallied into this week on their own momentum, including record trading volumes tied to the June 4 elimination of the Pattern Day Trader rule. That backdrop means the incremental Bitcoin-driven push at Webull looks smaller in percentage terms than at Robinhood.
The macro backdrop remains only partially accommodative for the Bitcoin-linked trade. U.S. 10-year Treasury notes yield 4.7% and 2-year notes yield 4.2%, with CME FedWatch pricing a 34.6% chance the Federal Reserve hikes at its September meeting. Yields at those levels still compete for risk capital.
Robinhood stock has fallen 11% YTD and sits well off recent highs even after today's move, while Webull shares are up 11.5% YTD. Investors can watch for sustained crypto-linked transaction volumes at Robinhood over the coming weeks to confirm whether today's tape holds into fundamentals.
Both Robinhood and Webull carry high crypto-linked beta, which argues for measured position sizing at these levels. Traders may want to keep an eye on whether Bitcoin holds above prior resistance into the weekend, since a failed breakout would likely reverse today's brokerage gains.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
