Robinhood CFO defends its future as shares slide 9% after earnings

Robinhood (HOOD) has dreams of being the “financial super app,” but Wall Street isn’t buying into the vision.

Shares of the trading platform plunged 9% shortly after it reported Q4 earnings that missed analysts’ expectations for both total net revenue and crypto-specific revenue.

“First, we want to win with active traders,” Robinhood CFO Shiv Verma told Yahoo Finance following the company’s results on Wednesday. “Second, we want to win in the wallet share. Third, we want to be global and we want to be institutional. We’re making progress on all of those and … it looks very different than five years ago.”

While the company is sprinting toward a future as a diversified financial giant, the core engine of its growth — volatile retail trading — is failing to keep pace with Wall Street’s aggressive projections. For investors, the concern isn’t just a single miss, but the disconnect between management’s long-term optimism and the immediate reality of crypto fatigue.

Verma was quick to push back on the idea that investors are over-indexed on the company’s crypto performance, noting that the sector accounted for only about 18% of revenue last year. He emphasized that while more than 80% of revenue comes from outside crypto, the company remains long-term bullish on the digital asset landscape.

“We love the technology,” Verma said. “We think it’s here to stay.”

That optimism is shared by some of the industry’s most vocal proponents. Anthony Pompliano, Professional Capital Management founder and CEO, echoed Verma’s bullish sentiments during Bitcoin Investor Week 2026. Doubling down on the long-term value of bitcoin (BTC-USD), crypto’s largest digital currency, Pompliano offered a stark prediction.

“If it doesn’t go to zero, it’s going to a million at some point,” Pompliano said.

Meanwhile, Robinhood is banking on several catalysts to revive its crypto segment, including the tokenization of real-world assets and a significant push into the institutional market. Verma noted that institutional appetite is evolving, with many now viewing crypto as an asset class on par with equity markets, especially following the rise of crypto ETFs and derivatives.

Despite the share price slide, some analysts see a buying opportunity amid the noise. Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani characterized the slump as a temporary setback in a research note, suggesting investors “ride out the crypto jitters,” as weakness should subside from Q2 onwards.

Chhugani highlighted a 6% beat on EPS ($0.67) and solid underlying metrics, including record highs for funded accounts and Robinhood Gold users. He suggested that the $60 to $75 range represents a good accumulation zone even if crypto remains weak in the short term, pointing toward Robinhood’s prediction markets as a potential billion-dollar annual business in 2026.

That optimism rests on Robinhood’s ability to deliver on its product roadmap, which includes deploying more AI tools for active traders and persuading millions of customers to use its Robinhood Gold Card. On the institutional front, the platform is expanding with the new Bitstamp crypto exchange and the acquisition of TradePMR for human advisers, which aims to connect with millennial and Gen Z customers. Such efforts signal a pivot toward a more mature, stable revenue stream.

“We want to be the financial super app,” Verma said, noting that the company “started in a massive industry” and is aiming to take on even bigger ones.

Ultimately, the company’s 10-year vision remains unchanged despite the quarterly volatility. Verma insisted that the only thing that has changed is a desire to do even more, moving from brokerage into banking, international markets, and institutional services.

“Everything we’re seeing … actually gets us more excited to continue down that journey,” he added.

Francisco Velasquez is a Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on LinkedIn, X, and Instagram. Story tips? Email him at francisco.velasquez@yahooinc.com.

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