Robinhood to Cut 10% of Its Staff and Take $28 Million in Charges as Trading Hits Records

A 10% cut the company says comes from strength

Robinhood Markets told the SEC on June 16 that it will reduce its full-time workforce by about 10%. The cut touches roughly 290 of the about 2,900 employees the company reported in its latest annual filing, plus a handful of unfilled roles. Chief executive Vlad Tenev framed it as a way to flatten management layers and ship products faster, not as a retreat. In the Form 8-K filed with the SEC, Robinhood said it was acting “from a position of business strength.” It pointed to June trading volumes at record levels across equities, options, and its newer prediction-markets business.

The cost, and why investors shrugged

The cut carries a price of about $28 million. That breaks into $20 million of cash for severance and benefits and $8 million of stock-based compensation, with the full charge landing in the second quarter of 2026. Investors read the move as margin-friendly housekeeping, not a warning. Robinhood shares rose more than 2% after the announcement. The reaction shows how far the company has come since 2022, when two rounds of layoffs, including one that cut 23% of staff, hit as trading slowed and losses piled up. This time the jobs are going while revenue is still growing.

Leaner, while betting on new markets

The timing matters because Robinhood is pushing well beyond plain stock trading. Options, crypto, and prediction markets, which let users trade contracts tied to real-world events, are now bigger parts of the story. Tenev has said he wants the company to stay lean as those bets scale. The crypto boom that lifted revenue over the past two years has turned choppier of late. Tighter costs work as a cushion if any one business cools. Fewer managers, the company argues, should let smaller teams move faster.

What to watch

1. Whether the cut actually widens margins. Robinhood books the $28 million charge in the second quarter, so any savings should surface in the back half of 2026, with operating costs against revenue the figure to watch.

2. Whether record volumes hold. The company is leaning on record trading in equities, options, and prediction markets to justify cutting staff from strength, and the same move would read very differently if volumes fade.

3. Whether prediction markets become a real third leg. Robinhood is staking part of its growth on event contracts alongside stocks and crypto, and the next quarterly report will show whether that business can offset any softness in crypto trading.