Robinhood Soars on S&P 500 Inclusion as Strategy Gets Snubbed

Shares of Robinhood jumped 7% in after-hours trading Friday after the retail brokerage was named to the S&P 500.

Key Takeaways:

• Robinhood shares jumped 7% after being added to the S&P 500, joining the index on September 22.
• Strategy, despite a $95B valuation and $70B in Bitcoin holdings, was left out of the reshuffle.
• Robinhood posted strong Q2 earnings, with $989M in revenue and $386M in profit.

Robinhood (HOOD) closed just above $101 and soared past $108 in extended trading following the announcement.

The company’s share price has climbed over 150% year-to-date, driven by strong earnings and growing retail interest in stocks and crypto.

Robinhood to Join S&P 500 on September 22

Robinhood will officially join the index on September 22, alongside ad-tech firm AppLovin, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

While Robinhood celebrates its inclusion, Strategy, the Bitcoin treasury firm formerly known as MicroStrategy, was left off the list, despite meeting S&P’s $20 billion market cap requirement.

Strategy, which now holds more than $70 billion in Bitcoin, saw its shares fall 3% in after-hours trading following the announcement.

The omission surprised some observers, given Strategy’s $95 billion valuation and its pioneering role in bringing Bitcoin to public balance sheets.

Based in Tysons Corner, Virginia, the company has become synonymous with corporate crypto adoption.

The S&P reshuffle comes amid rising institutional interest in digital assets and a more favorable political environment.

Earlier this year, Coinbase was added to the S&P index, signaling growing recognition of crypto-native companies in traditional financial markets.

Robinhood’s strong fundamentals further fueled its rally. In Q2, the company posted $989 million in revenue, up 45% year-over-year, beating Wall Street estimates.

Net income hit $386 million, with earnings per share of $0.42, well above analyst forecasts.

Crypto trading revenue came in at $160 million, nearly doubling year-over-year but down from the previous quarter’s $252 million.

Meanwhile, income from options trading and equities reached $265 million and $66 million, respectively, making options Robinhood’s top revenue stream once again.

Robinhood Sues Nevada, New Jersey Regulators Over Event Contracts

Last month, Robinhood Derivatives took legal action against regulators in Nevada and New Jersey, accusing the states of unfairly blocking its entry into the sports event contracts market, despite recent federal court rulings in favor of rival platform Kalshi.

The firm said it began offering event contracts in both states after federal judges ruled earlier this year that Nevada and New Jersey gaming regulators could not enforce their bans against Kalshi, which offers contracts regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Robinhood argued that regulators have ignored those rulings and continued to threaten enforcement action, creating an uneven playing field.

“If state regulators are permitted to act against Robinhood but not Kalshi, then Robinhood will lose out in the sports event contracts space,” the company said in its filings.

Meanwhile, Robinhood has come under regulatory fire in the EU after launching tokenized stock products linked to private companies like OpenAI and SpaceX.

The Bank of Lithuania confirmed it is investigating the legality and investor disclosures related to these blockchain-based “Stock Tokens,” which launched on June 30.

OpenAI publicly disavowed any connection, stating it never approved the tokens and warning investors to be cautious.

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