2/ Recap: Robinhood is developing its own Layer-2 blockchain based on Arbitrum's tech stack, optimized for tokenized real-world assets. Dive deeper in our latest blog post or read on for a TLDR;

3/ The infrastructure requirements: What Robinhood actually needed Robinhood needed fine-grained control over transaction sequencing, infrastructure-level customizability, and protocol logic - all critical for supporting 24/7 tokenized equities under strict compliance requirements.

4/ Arbitrum Orbit delivered through full-stack customization: 🐉 Stylus for Rust/C++ smart contract support 🐉 Queue-based sequencing to enforce fair ordering 🐉 Sub-250ms block times for institutional-grade performance 🐉 EVM compatibility for seamless DeFi integrations And by running their own single sequencer, Robinhood can prevent front-running (illegal in traditional markets!)

5/ Could this have been built on Solana? The answer isn't a simple yes or no. But with execution upgrades like APE live and consensus overhauls like Alpenglow and MCL underway, Solana's architecture now meets most of Robinhood's needs.

6/ Solana's protocol upgrades that enable offchain compute: Asynchronous Program Execution (APE): Already live on mainnet since late 2024. Multiple Concurrent Leaders (MCL): Under active development Alpenglow (Rotor + Votor): Targeted for early 2026

7/ So could Robinhood have chosen Solana? Almost. Once APE, MCL, and Alpenglow are in place, Solana delivers: 🐉 Sub-150ms settlement for real-time trading 🐉 Deterministic inclusion lanes with lane-specific control 🐉 Off-chain coordination without blocking consensus 🐉 Validator alignment with app-level logic But two things are still missing 👀

8/ What's still missing: Two regulatory-critical factors End-to-end authority over block-building: MCL reduces MEV exposure, but ultimate inclusion still rests with rotating validators. Orbit gives complete control from day one. Sovereign runtime & upgrade path: Full self-governance vs. network-wide consensus.

9/ Enter Raiku for block-building What's missing is a generalized coordination layer that all apps can use without building custom sidecars. Raiku solves this by providing: 🐉 Reserved slot space for guaranteed inclusion 🐉 Application-level filters (KYC, compliance) 🐉 Deterministic ordering

10/ The bottom line: Robinhood's decision exposed the infrastructure gap between what crypto offers vs. what institutions need. Solana is rapidly closing this gap with APE, MCL, Alpenglow, and coordination layers like Raiku. The next Robinhood might choose differently.