Robinhood Q1 2026 earnings landed below Wall Street’s expectations on April 28, 2026. The online broker posted net revenue of $1.07 billion. That figure rose 15 percent year over year. However, analysts had expected $1.14 billion. Diluted earnings per share came in at $0.38, just short of the $0.39 consensus. Net income grew 3 percent to $346 million. The market reacted quickly. HOOD stock slid roughly 10 percent in premarket trading on Wednesday, reflecting investor frustration with the miss. Moreover, the stock was already down 27 percent year to date heading into the report.
Why crypto revenue drove the Robinhood Q1 2026 earnings miss
The shortfall had one clear cause. Cryptocurrency transaction revenue collapsed 47 percent year over year, falling from $252 million to $134 million. Trading volume in crypto also dropped 48 percent to $24 billion. Furthermore, it marked the third straight quarter of falling crypto transaction revenue for the platform. Bitcoin has dropped over 30 percent in the past six months. As a result, retail crypto activity dried up at exactly the wrong moment for Robinhood’s revenue mix.
Transaction revenue still grew, but not enough
Transaction-based revenue as a whole rose 7 percent to $623 million. That growth came from stronger activity in other areas. Options revenue climbed 8 percent to $260 million. Equities revenue jumped 46 percent to $82 million. Additionally, other transaction revenue surged 320 percent to $147 million. That figure was driven almost entirely by event contracts Robinhood’s prediction market product. Users traded a record 8.8 billion event contracts in Q1, a 780 percent jump from the product’s first full quarter on the platform in Q2 2025. Still, those gains were not large enough to offset the crypto decline and close the gap with analyst estimates.
Robinhood Predictions and subscriptions offer a bright spot
Not everything in the report was weak. Robinhood Gold subscribers grew 36 percent year over year to a record 4.3 million. Net deposits reached $17.7 billion for the quarter. Total platform assets climbed 39 percent to $307 billion. In addition, the company’s banking arm surpassed $2 billion in deposits and counted over 125,000 funded customers. Average revenue per user did fall, dropping to $157 from $191 the prior quarter. Nevertheless, the platform’s member base continued to grow, reaching a record 27.4 million funded accounts.
April is already trending better
Management pointed to a fast start in April. Equity and options trading volumes are tracking toward the best showing of the year so far and could mark the company’s second-biggest month ever. Net deposits for April had already reached roughly $5 billion at the time of the earnings call. As a result, investors have reason to expect Q2 may look stronger on the trading front.
What analysts say about HOOD after the miss
Analysts were not convinced by the partial positives. Morningstar flagged crypto trading as a key pressure point for the quarter. Raymond James analysts pointed to choppier trading volumes and cited signs of retail investor fatigue. Furthermore, KBW analysts warned that competition in crypto is set to intensify, with established players like Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE moving deeper into the space.
On expenses, Robinhood raised its 2026 adjusted operating expense guidance to a range of $2.7 billion to $2.825 billion. That is up from the prior range of $2.6 billion to $2.725 billion. The additional $100 million reflects new spending on Trump Accounts, the government-backed investment vehicles for children. The company also announced a new $1.5 billion share buyback plan covering roughly three years. It already bought back $250 million worth of stock in Q1.
What comes next for Robinhood
CEO Vlad Tenev made clear that the company wants to move away from a story driven by crypto price cycles. He framed crypto as a long-term infrastructure investment rather than a short-term revenue lever. In line with that shift, Robinhood Predictions is tracking toward roughly $3 billion in trading volume for April alone. The company also holds $5 billion in cash and equivalents, giving it financial room to invest in new products.
The core question for investors is whether banking, subscriptions, and prediction markets can grow large enough to make up for crypto’s volatility. For more on how Robinhood’s product pivot is reshaping its business model
Source: TechStock²
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