Robinhood acquires stake in Crypto.com in a predictive market deal

Robinhood has reached a multi-year agreement with OG.com to introduce equity cooperation in crypto assets.

Robinhood has signed a multi-year agreement to route some event contract transactions through the OG.com platform, and also obtain equity in Crypto.com and OG.com Under the agreement, Crypto.com is valued at US$20 billion, and OG.com is independently valued at US$5 billion.

Summary of Core Points

• Robinhood will process some event contracts for its retail customers through OG.com, a federally regulated derivatives platform.
• Robinhood will receive an initial minority stake in Crypto.com and the newly independent OG.com
• Supported OG.com contracts will be gradually available to eligible U.S. customers starting September 8.
• As of the time of news, Robinhood (ticker: HOOD) shares closed at US$122.02, while the CRO token price associated with Crypto.com rose approximately 5.3% to US$0.0604.

Robinhood introduces OG.com as an event contract provider

On September 8, Robinhood and OG. comannounced a cooperation agreement. The agreement confirms that forecast market operator OG.com will provide exchange, clearing and Infrastructure services for Robinhood's event contracts business.

Under the multi-year arrangement, Robinhood will route some retail event contract trading volume through derivatives exchanges and clearing houses at OG.com The platform, which operates under the supervision of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), provides Robinhood with another federally regulated service provider for its forecast markets business in the United States.

As the U.S. professional football season begins, the first batch of football-related contracts will be among the products routed through new providers. OG.com said its contract will appear in phases in Robinhood's app for use by eligible U.S. users, and the phased rollout will begin on September 8.

According to the company's announcement, contracts covering economic indicators, elections, sports and cultural events will also be launched one after another. Each contract provides the trader with a binary position (yes or no) and is settled based on the results specified in the terms.

Robinhood does not currently rely on a single exchange, but obtains contracts from multiple providers. As early as March 2025, the broker launched a Kalshi-backed forecast market center, which was later added to ForecastEx and Rothera, its joint venture with Susquehanna International Group.

It has been previously reported that Robinhood has been discussing reaching a deal with Crypto.com to add another provider to its existing network. The completed transaction transformed the originally proposed distribution arrangement into an equity relationship involving Crypto.com and OG.com

Robinhood obtains equity at established valuation

In addition to the infrastructure partnership, Robinhood will also receive an initial minority stake in Crypto.com and OG.com Neither company disclosed the size of the investment or the amount Robinhood paid.

According to the joint announcement, equity pricing will follow Citadel Securities's recent investment terms. In the deal, Crypto.com was valued at US$20 billion, while OG.com received an independent valuation of US$5 billion after separating from Crypto.com

Currently, OG.com operates as an independent company with its own capital allocation and management priorities. Crypto.com retains its main digital asset exchange business, while the separated platform focuses on forecasting markets, futures, perpetual contracts and related derivatives.

Kris Marszalek, founder and CEO of Crypto.com and OG.com, described the agreement as the beginning of a long-term cooperation between the companies.

"We look forward to making OG.com the world's most liquid venue for trading innovative derivatives instruments, starting with the forecasting market and rapidly expanding into futures and perpetual contracts."

JB Mackenzie, vice president and general manager of Robinhood Futures and Forecasting Markets, said the equity component gives the broker a direct financial interest in the infrastructure that supports its contracts.

"The partnership with Crypto.com and OG.com strengthens our position as a leader in the forecasting market space and gives us a 'skin in the game'." Mackenzie added that he noted that customer demand for contracts related to public events continues to grow.

Forecasting the market to become Robinhood's larger business segment

According to Reuters, the agreement added capacity to Robinhood's product line that generated $156 million in revenue in the second quarter. The figure set a quarterly record for the company's event contract business.

Robinhood is also preparing a dedicated election center for the November 2026 U.S. midterm elections. Reuters reported that the center will contain contracts related to state and federal campaigns, and some products may be routed through Crypto.com and OG.com

A revenue forecast from Bernstein in June estimated that Robinhood's forecast market could generate $586 million in revenue in 2026, up from $150 million in 2025. The research firm's estimates are based in part on trading data during the World Cup, when daily market trading volume was forecast to be as high as US$4.8 billion.

Bernstein also estimates that by 2026, the business could account for 17% of Robinhood's transaction-based revenue and 10% of total revenue. According to the company, Rothera processed approximately 200 million contracts in the first 18 days, of which the World Cup and MLB markets generated almost all activity.

Forecasting the market is just part of Robinhood's recent product expansion. The company has also moved into underwriting, allowing Robinhood Securities to help the company push companies to the public market rather than just distributing IPO shares through brokerage apps.

In terms of cryptocurrencies, since its official launch on July 1, Robinhood Chain has attracted a large number of decentralized trading activities. A September 3 network activity review found that the Ethereum Layer-2 network processed approximately US$945 million in DEX transactions on August 25, and accumulated more than US$47 billion in transactions in the previous two months.

The same review found that memecoin transactions accounted for the majority of activity. On August 30 alone, Pons contributed $445 million to the chain's total transaction volume of $874.8 million. In addition, Robinhood's tokenized stock products are still not available to U.S. residents.

U.S. state regulations remain controversial

Although OG.com operates an exchange and clearing house regulated by the CFTC, prediction market providers continue to face legal disputes: Are sports contracts governed by federal derivatives laws or governed by state gambling rules?

The CFTC maintained in court documents that registered derivatives exchanges are under its exclusive jurisdiction. State officials argue that contracts based on sporting events are similar to gambling products and should comply with local licensing, age limits and consumer protection requirements.

In July, attorneys general from 44 states challenged the CFTC to ask regulators to withdraw and rewrite their proposed rules on contracts for sports-related events. The coalition said the proposal exceeded agency authority and entered an area traditionally overseen by states.

Court decisions produced mixed results across the country. Judges in Michigan and Washington temporarily restricted certain sports contracts, while a federal judge blocked Minnesota from enforcing its forecast market ban while the lawsuit continued.

Therefore, availability on Robinhood will depend on customer qualifications, individual contract terms, and state restrictions, not just the federal status of OG.com The launch announcement does not provide a complete list of states in which new contracts will be available.

As of 14:52 UTC on September 8, HOOD's share price closed at US$122.02, a decline of about 0.07% on the day, and the intraday fluctuation range was US$119.51 to US$126.51. On the same day, Cronos, associated with Crypto.com, rose approximately 5.3% to $0.0604, with intraday fluctuations ranging from approximately $0.0565 to $0.0640.