Vlad Tenev, CEO and co-founder of broker Robinhood, said:

Robinhood Securities is now approved to serve as an underwriter.

Since IPO Access launched in 2021, we've watched retail go from an afterthought to a key part of how companies plan an IPO. The question changed from "why allocate to retail at all?" to "how big can the allocation…

— Vlad Tenev (@vladtenev) June 9, 2026

Tenev said: “The question changed from “why allocate to retail at all?” to “how big can the allocation be?”

Becoming an underwriter, and not just a selling group member, is the natural next step to better serve our customers and our issuers.

We intend to be disruptive in this space.”

Simran Singh, CEO of Monaco Research, an organization helping to build Monaco, the institutional-grade decentralizeddigital asset trading protocol initially incubated by Sei Labs, said:

This is exciting. What does this mean practically….

→ Robinhood now gets a seat at the table in determining deal economics (ie some % of deal proceeds) = direct revenue on every deal.

→ Control over share allocations: they can advocate for (and potentially guarantee) larger… https://t.co/HUjZKrinuH

— 0xturbanurban (@0xturbanurban) June 9, 2026

Singh said: “→ Control over share allocations: they can advocate for (and potentially guarantee) larger retail tranches, rather than simply hoping for chunkier allocations from traditional banks, which historically favor larger/institutional clients.

→ Companies can now hire Robinhood directly as a bookrunner/co-manager, giving it a formal place in roadshows, pricing, and syndication.

→ This sets the stage for broader access to to the capital market stack – will there be a banking charter on the horizon?”