Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTCourtney Carlsen, The Motley FoolTue, June 23, 2026 at 9:13 PM GMT+2 3 min readRobinhood Markets (NASDAQ: HOOD) has delivered for investors. Since the start of 2024, the stock has surged 731%, far outpacing peers such as Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab. Robinhood has done an excellent job of expanding its customer base and consistently rolling out new offerings to increase its total asset base.The company made headlines earlier this month when it announced it secured regulatory approval to serve as a direct underwriter for initial public offerings (IPOs). This moves Robinhood into the investment banking space, opening up an entirely new revenue stream for the company. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »Image source: Getty Images.Robinhood is taking on investment banksOn the heels of Space Exploration Technologies' IPO, Robinhood announced it would build out its own investment banking and equity underwriting business. No longer will Robinhood be a passive distributor for third-party investment banks. Instead, Robinhood becomes a direct syndicate partner in IPOs, gaining control of shares at the institutional offer price and bypassing Wall Street intermediaries and gatekeepers.Moving into equity underwriting moves Robinhood beyond its retail brokerage platform and into a full-service financial services company that aims to take on Wall Street's giants. It also builds on Robinhood's growing platform, which has added numerous offerings in recent years, including futures and index options, retirement accounts, prediction markets, stock tokens, and agentic artificial intelligence (AI) trading.Robinhood aims to provide its customer base with early access to IPO stocks before they begin trading on public exchanges. This privilege has traditionally been reserved for institutional and high-net-worth investors. As a syndicate underwriter, Robinhood hopes to remove barriers and allow everyday users to participate in IPOs at their listing price, rather than inflated secondary-market prices.The move opens up a new revenue stream for RobinhoodThe move benefits both Robinhood users and Robinhood itself by providing a profitable, nontransactional revenue stream. The company has historically relied on payment for order flow (PFOF), which has been heavily scrutinized, and net interest income, which is sensitive to the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy. The expansion is the next step for Robinhood as it builds itself up as a formidable competitor in the financial services industry.Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info