Robinhood Expands Trading Hours, Adds Crypto Perpetuals and AI Agents

Starting next year, Robinhood customers will be able to trade certain U.S. equities 24/7, including weekends. The move extends the company’s 24/5 trading feature, rolled out in 2023, which lets customers trade from Sunday at 8 p.m. ET to Friday at 8 p.m. ET.

Robinhood also introduced AI-powered automated trading tools that will let users build their own agents, following the launch of agentic trading earlier this year. The company said customers could use the agents to automate parts of the trading process and pursue around-the-clock strategies.

The brokerage additionally unveiled plans to allow users to trade crypto perpetual futures contracts in the Robinhood app. Such contracts offer leveraged exposure to cryptocurrencies without requiring traders to hold the underlying assets.

The new offerings reflect Robinhood’s evolution beyond its commission-free stock-trading roots as it seeks to become a more comprehensive platform for active traders. The strategy puts it increasingly in competition with crypto-native platforms such as Coinbase, which has expanded into derivatives and other financial products, and traditional brokerages such as Schwab, which added 24/7 trading in select cryptocurrency futures on its thinkorswim platform this year.

As firms vie for customers who trade across a wider range of markets and hours, competition among retail brokerages is moving beyond low trading costs toward access, speed and automation.

“Ownership doesn’t work without markets, and markets don’t work without traders,” Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said in a statement. “We’re making Robinhood the best place in the world for active traders by delivering tools once reserved for hedge funds, big banks, and quant firms.”

Robinhood shares jumped 3% in early trading Wednesday following the news.