Robinhood defends trading against gambling claims, while it launches Trump Accounts with $1,000 government-funded investments for eligible children.
Robinhood is making its biggest bet yet on the next generation of investors: all of them, from birth. The brokerage is helping run the newly launched Trump Accounts, which seed eligible American children with a $1,000 government-funded investment, while chairman and CEO Vlad Tenev pushes back against claims that trading is just gambling in disguise.
Tenev said in an interview with The New York Times that the company is working with the US government to operate the program, a savings and investment scheme designed to start wealth-building early.
Created under Section 530A of the US tax code, the program provides a $1,000 Treasury contribution for every eligible child born between 2025 and 2028. The money goes into an index fund tracking the S&P 500, managed through an app Robinhood built, with the company acting as broker and sole initial trustee alongside BNY as custodian.
Uptake has been fast. Nearly 6 million children have signed up, with contributions landing in accounts since the 4 July launch, and the balances roll over into individual retirement accounts (IRAs) when the child turns 18.
Tenev argues the initiative is about access, not politics. "Trump accounts, I think, are among the least political ideas in principle," he said. "There are few things people agree on, but seeding children with an investment portfolio of the S&P 500 is universally popular."
He has a data point to lean on: 86% of the accounts have been opened by families earning under $200,000 a year. Several state governments, including Democratic-led ones, have shown interest in joining or building similar programs, he added.
Robinhood became one of the fastest-growing trading platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic as millions of retail investors entered stocks and crypto. The company also faced criticism over its colorful interface, push notifications, and reward-style animations, which critics argued encouraged excessive trading.
Robinhood has removed several of those features over the years, but the concerns persist, especially as the platform expands into prediction markets.
Tenev rejected the framing outright.
"There are some people who think any type of trading is gambling," he said. "I don't think that's true. Some of the traders who actively trade have strategies, and they have well-reasoned positions and trades that they're making."
In his telling, critics confuse speculation with gambling, when speculation is what makes markets work.
"If nobody puts in money with the point of view that a certain thing is going to have a certain price in the future, you just wouldn't have a functioning market," he said.
Tenev also laid out the company's push past its "meme stock" reputation. Founded in 2013, Robinhood now serves 27.7 million users with commission-free trading in stocks, cryptocurrencies, options, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and has expanded into banking-style products including the Robinhood Gold Card.
Tenev told the Times that more than 90% of his personal net worth sits in Robinhood shares. Notably, he sold 375,000 of them on 6 July under a pre-set Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, while retaining more than 48.2 million Class B shares.
The bigger picture is a company rebuilding its image, from meme-stock casino to long-term wealth platform, with retirement products, banking services, and now a government program as the proof points.
The next markers to watch: whether states actually launch their own versions, and whether 6 million children's accounts become 6 million lifelong customers. That second number is the real bet, and Robinhood just got the government to help place it.
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