Robinhood Markets (HOOD) saw its shares climb 5.3% to $80.79 on Thursday, after the brokerage released April operating metrics that pointed to a revival in retail trading activity. The stock briefly touched an intraday high of $81.89 before settling, with roughly 19 million shares changing hands.
The April data helped alleviate concerns that had lingered since Robinhood's first-quarter earnings report, which left investors questioning the sustainability of retail trading revenue. While cryptocurrency trading remained sluggish, equities, options, margin lending, and event contracts all posted gains during the month.
Key Metrics Show Broad-Based Growth
Platform assets reached $345.4 billion as of April 30, representing a 12% increase from March and a 49% surge compared to the same period last year. The number of funded customers rose to 27.6 million, while net deposits totaled $6.0 billion for the month, translating to a 23% annualized growth rate relative to March's platform assets.
Equity notional trading volume climbed 15% to $248.5 billion, and options contracts traded increased 9% to 224.8 million. Event contracts—binary wagers on real-world outcomes—rose 7% to 3.2 billion. However, crypto notional volume fell 33% to $11.9 billion, dragged down by a 46% decline at Bitstamp.
Analyst Optimism Persists
Deutsche Bank reiterated its Buy rating and $86 price target for Robinhood following the April data release. The firm noted that while crypto trading slowed, equities and options activity remained robust, and net interest income trends showed modest improvement. According to the bank, April's performance aligns with its second-quarter earnings per share estimate of $0.43, which stands above the consensus estimate of $0.40.
Robinhood's April figures corroborated comments made by Chief Financial Officer Shiv Verma during the company's April 28 earnings call. "Q2 is off to a good start in April," Verma said, noting that equity and options volumes were on pace for their best month so far this year.
Crypto Weakness Remains a Concern
Despite the positive headline numbers, the rebound may prove fragile. Robinhood's crypto trading volume dropped 37% year over year, and first-quarter crypto revenue fell to $134 million, a 47% decline. Last month, Reuters reported that Robinhood missed profit and revenue targets due to weaker crypto trading weighing on volume growth.
Competitive Landscape Intensifies
Competition in the retail brokerage space is heating up. Charles Schwab reported on Thursday that its daily average trades hit a new record in April at 10.3 million, while client assets swelled to $12.61 trillion, underscoring the scale of the rival Robinhood faces.
Interactive Brokers also made a strategic move on Thursday, launching a unified platform for prediction markets that allows clients to access Kalshi, CME Group, and ForecastEx. This puts another major brokerage directly in the territory Robinhood has been targeting with its event contracts.
Rate Outlook and Margin Balances
Investors have been closely monitoring Robinhood's margin and cash balances amid shifting expectations for interest rates. Kalshi's Fed page indicated a 70% implied probability that rates will not be cut in 2026, while Polymarket showed a similar reading of 72%. A higher-for-longer rate environment typically benefits brokerage net interest income, but those probabilities can shift rapidly.
April provided a clearer narrative for Robinhood than its recent earnings miss: retail investors were active, deposits continued to flow, and newer offerings like event contracts showed steady growth. The key question remains whether this momentum can be sustained if crypto trading stays weak and larger rivals intensify their efforts to capture the same client base.
