Robinhood cuts 10% of staff despite record trading volumes

Robinhood is laying off 10% of its workforce in a restructuring that will eliminate about 290 jobs, the company announced Tuesday despite CEO Vlad Tenev saying its “business has never been stronger.”

In an SEC filing, chief financial officer Shiv Verma wrote that the restructuring will also close down a “small number” of open roles Robinhood was planning to make hires for. The brokerage expects to incur about $28 million in charges tied to its layoffs, consisting of severance and benefits costs, as well as fees tied to share-based compensation.

Robinhood’s stock (HOOD) is down about 16% so far this year but recovered a roughly 20% gain over the past month. On Tuesday, the company said it is seeing record June month-to-date trading volumes across equities, markets, and prediction markets. 

“Robinhood’s business has never been stronger. But to achieve the massive scale of our mission, we cannot default to operating as a heavily-layered organization,” said Tenev in a note to employees. “We must be a lean, hyper-focused team where every single individual is empowered to make a massive impact. Our execution is strong today, but our ambitions require us to continuously raise our own bar. To achieve that, today we are flattening our org structure and reducing our overall team size by 10% of headcount.”

A company spokesperson directed InvestmentNews to an X post from Robinhood’s Communication staff sharing the internal note from Tenev, after InvestmentNews reached out to ask if any specific departments had been impacted by layoffs. Robinhood had about 2,900 full-time employees as of Dec. 31, according to an SEC filing.

“Because our financial position is strong, we are making this change proactively. The goal is to maximize our talent density and ensure that our culture is defined by an absolute elite performance bar and a superlative commitment to our customers,” added Tenev.

Robinhood is attempting to transfer users from its popular app for retail investors into working with financial advisors. The company recently launched an RIA referral program to advisors that custody with TradePMR, the custodian Robinhood acquired for $300 million in 2024. RIAs such as Mather Group and Grimes & Company are among the early referral program participants, which refers clients with at least $250,000 in assets. 

The brokerage also has its own internal Concierge team of CFP support to serve investors with at least $1 million in invested assets. At Robinhood’s TradePMR Synergy conference in Washington D.C. earlier this month, the company said its Concierge unit serves nearly 60,000 clients. 

Robinhood has also rolled out its Cortex AI assistant for advisors that custody with TradePMR, providing tools such as AI‑generated portfolio analysis and tax insights. Last month, Robinhood launched AI agents to trade equities and make automated credit card purchases for retail investors.

Other finance advice firms to conduct layoffs this year include LPL, UBS, and Morgan Stanley. In February, fintech payments company Block cut about 40% of its workforce, 4,000 jobs, in a move CEO Jack Dorsey said was a result of the company’s embrace of AI tools.