Arcus receives support from Robinhood to add tokenized assets and perpetual contracts

Arcus launches tokenized stocks and perpetual contracts on Robinhood Chain

Arcus, a decentralized exchange supported by Robinhood Crypto, has expanded its on-chain trading services on Robinhood Chain to launch tokenized stocks and perpetual contracts. This progress shows that DEX infrastructure is rapidly evolving to cover traditional market exposures rather than just crypto-native assets.

According to the announcement, Arcus began trading tokenized stocks and perpetual contracts on Tuesday. The platform also previously launched the spot market when Robinhood Chain launched on July 1, which includes access to stock tokens through a self-managed trading model.

Key Points

Arcus launched tokenized stocks and perpetual futures on Robinhood Chain on Tuesday, an expansion of its early spot market. The exchange supports more than 95 stock tokens and provides a sustainable market related to stocks, ETFs, commodities, indices and crypto assets. Arcus uses a self-managed approach, where users maintain control of their wallets through Priy and connectors such as MetaMask and Ledger. The USDG issued by Paxos is positioned as Arcus's main collateral and clearing asset. Arcus restricts stock tokens in many regions including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, highlighting the fragmented status of regulation of tokenized securities.

Arcus adds tokenized shares and perpetual contracts

Arcus is positioning itself as a bridge between on-chain transactions and traditional capital markets. New products include tokenized versions of stocks of well-known U.S. companies-such as Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Amazon-as well as perpetual markets associated with stocks and other off-chain reference categories. In addition to equity-linked perpetual contracts, Arcus's product lineup also expands into perpetual markets related to exchange-traded funds, commodities, indices and crypto-assets. The company sees the expansion as part of a broader move to "chain" real-world assets into a decentralized trading process.

Arcus launched the spot market shortly after Robinhood Chain was launched. Previous reports showed that Robinhood Chain had more than US$70 million in ETH bridged in the first week, and Arcus's early spot release was based on this basis to introduce tokenized exposure into the chain.

Self-managed model built around Privy and existing wallets

A distinctive feature of Arcus is its self-managed structure. Arcus describes a transaction setup where users do not have to deposit assets in a centralized exchange's custody system, but instead maintain control of their crypto-wallets. This is important for traders because self-custody transfers responsibility for key management to users and reduces reliance on funds held by intermediaries. To support user access and wallet management, Arcus uses wallet infrastructure provider Priy. The platform supports registration via email or social login, and then routing transaction activity through wallet-based authorization. For users who already hold crypto assets, Arcus supports connecting to existing self-managed wallets, including MetaMask, Ledger, and WalletConnect. The company also said it supports other ethereum-compatible wallets.

Arcus's trading system is also designed around stablecoin settlement. The USDG issued by Paxos is described as the platform's main collateral and clearing asset, linking stock-related transactions to the familiar stablecoin infrastructure rather than requiring users to rely solely on the volatility of native crypto assets.

Restrictions highlight unbalanced regulation of tokenized stocks

Although tokenized stocks are a core part of Arcus's expansion, the company made clear where these tools are not available. Arcus said its stock tokens are not available in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other restricted jurisdictions. Arcus did not provide further details on restrictions, but geographical exclusions further reinforce the core theme of tokenizing real-world assets: regulatory standards for securities representatives vary widely, and product accessibility is often the primary battleground. In markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom, regulators have been examining how traditional blockchain-based asset representatives can adapt to existing financial rules. Key questions often include: Who actually holds or controls the assets? How is ownership defined? What kind of market structure will be formed when trading through token contracts? Arcus's approach suggests it is trying to expand on-chain trading while limiting its exposure to jurisdictions where compliance requirements are more complex or where the classification of tokenized securities is unclear.

On-chain RWA infrastructure competition accelerates

Arcus's move comes amid broader industry competition: Crypto companies and financial platforms are competing to build the infrastructure to tokenize real-world assets. The impetus is not limited to token issuance-DEX-style trading venues, perpetual markets, and settlement mechanisms are becoming as important as the on-chain representation of the underlying assets. As the Robinhood Chain product line expands, other efforts have emerged in the DEX space to introduce traditional financial instruments into the chain. Previous reports said that platforms including Coinbase-backed Base have been exploring providing tokenized stocks and related products on the chain, indicating that the "tokenized market" strategy is no longer limited to a single ecosystem.

There are also thematic tensions in this transition. Tokenized markets rely on regulatory licensing to determine where products can be offered, but on-chain infrastructure is often designed to be globally accessible. Arcus's release explicitly excludes certain regions, which illustrates how companies can prioritize compliance paths while still using the public blockchain network as the underlying execution layer. The release further adds to the list of platforms that are trying to transform traditional market participation into a decentralized trading model-especially for users who want to gain stock-related exposure but do not want to use the traditional brokerage interface. For investors and traders, the current focus is clear: How does Arcus evolve its regional availability? Will it expand from stock tokens to more derivative liquidity over time? As well as self-custody and USDG-centered settlement and custody design options, can they withstand the test of increasing regulatory scrutiny in major markets?