Crypto transaction revenue cratered 47% year over year, but a record surge in event contracts helped
Robinhood came into its first-quarter 2026 earnings report riding the momentum of a strong 2025, with crypto revenues having set a towering bar heading into the new year. What investors got instead on April 28 was a more complicated picture: a company navigating a sharp reversal in one of its biggest revenue engines while finding unexpected growth somewhere else entirely.
The trading platform reported total net revenues of $1.07 billion for the quarter, a 15% increase year over year compared with $927 million in the same period of 2025. On the surface, that looks like progress. But the figure fell short of Wall Street’s expectation of $1.139 billion, and adjusted earnings per share of $0.38 narrowly missed the analyst consensus of $0.39, according to FactSet.
Net income rose 3% year over year to $346 million. HOOD shares dropped more than 7% in after-hours trading following the release, after already closing the regular session down more than 2% at $82.07.
The 47% crypto crash and what replaced it
The single most striking number in Robinhood’s Q1 report was the 47% year-over-year decline in crypto transaction revenue, which fell from $252 million in Q1 2025 to just $134 million in the most recent quarter. The drop reflects a broad shift in where Robinhood’s users are choosing to put their trading activity, and the company’s ability to offset that decline reveals just how much its product mix has diversified.
Transaction-based revenue overall rose modestly to $623 million from $583 million a year earlier, supported in large part by a category labeled “other transaction revenue,” which surged 320% year over year to $147 million. The primary driver of that spike was prediction markets, a product category that allows users to place bets on the outcomes of real-world events, ranging from interest rate decisions to election results.
Robinhood said users traded a record 8.8 billion event contracts during the quarter, a figure that signals just how quickly this corner of its platform has captured user attention.
Growth in steadier parts of the business
Beyond the trading numbers, Robinhood also reported meaningful progress in areas that tend to generate more predictable revenue. Net interest income grew year over year, and its Gold subscription service, a premium membership tier that bundles perks like higher interest rates on uninvested cash and access to margin investing, continued to add subscribers.
Together, these segments reflect the company’s broader effort to build a more stable financial ecosystem around its core trading product, one less exposed to the volatility that crypto markets can introduce on a quarterly basis.
Chief Financial Officer Shiv Verma pointed to strong user engagement and rapid product adoption as highlights of the period, noting annualized net deposit growth of more than 20% and double-digit volume growth across equities and options alongside the record prediction market activity.
A platform in deliberate transition
The Q1 results put a clear spotlight on a strategic reality Robinhood has been working toward for several quarters: reducing its dependence on crypto, which can swing wildly with market sentiment, in favor of a more diversified revenue base. The company has been expanding into derivatives and prediction markets as part of that effort, and the Q1 numbers suggest those bets are gaining traction even as the crypto side of the business gave back a significant portion of last year’s gains.
Robinhood has come a long way from its 2021 Nasdaq debut, and its September 2025 inclusion in the S&P 500 marked a milestone in its maturation as a publicly traded company. But with the stock down more than 27% so far in 2026 despite a 24% recovery over the past month, the pressure to meet and eventually beat Wall Street expectations remains very much intact.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author and publication are not registered investment advisors and do not provide personalized investment recommendations.