Arbitrum jumps 17% on speculation of partnership with Robinhood

The token for the Ethereum layer-2 blockchain, Arbitrum, gained 17% over the day amid speculation that the network will announce a partnership with US trading platform Robinhood Markets Inc. on Monday.

Robinhood dropped a hint on X, teasing a fireside chat with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Robinhood Crypto's big boss Johann Kerbrat, and A.J. Warner from Offchain Labs (the brains behind Arbitrum). The event? Robinhood Europe's gig in Cannes, France, where they're promising to drop their 'biggest crypto announcements of the year.'

Rumors about Robinhood and Arbitrum getting cozy aren't new. Back in May, Bloomberg spilled the beans that Robinhood was eyeing a blockchain platform for European investors to trade US stocks, with Arbitrum and Solana in the running. Fast forward, and it looks like Arbitrum might have won the beauty contest.

That's Eric Connor, ex-Ethereum core dev, calling it early on X. Meanwhile, Omar Kanji from Dragonfly is betting on Robinhood announcing its own chain. Bold move, if true.

ARB token is on fire, up 17.1% in 24 hours, hitting just over 36 cents. It's the crypto market's top performer, according to CoinGecko. From a low of 31 cents after Robinhood's X teaser, it peaked at 38.6 cents. Not bad for a day's work.

But let's not pop the champagne yet. ARB is still down nearly 50% this year and a whopping 85% from its January 2024 high of $2.39. Ouch.

HOOD shares got a little bump too, up 1.65% overnight to $84.26. Traders are clearly betting big on whatever Robinhood's about to announce. Will it live up to the hype? Stay tuned.