Robinhood announces it will reduce headcount by 10%, CEO seeks to avoid ‘heavily-layered’ organization

Robinhood, the app-based brokerage that helped fuel the meme-stock boom, is preparing another round of layoffs as it becomes the latest tech company to slim down its workforce. In a recent Form 8-K filing released on Tuesday, the company announced that it would trim about 290 full-time employees, amounting to 10% of its workforce, and cancel a small number of open job postings.

The filing also noted that Robinhood expects to spend about $20 million on severance and benefits, plus roughly $8 million in additional stock-based compensation costs tied to the layoffs.

Robinhood shares jumped more than 2% on the news but then fell later in the day. The stock was  trading around $95 as of mid-day Tuesday, down around 13% since the start of the year.

The company’s CEO Vladimir Tenev framed the cuts as a proactive move, saying in a memo that the company needs to simplify its structure to support its long-term ambitions.

“To achieve the massive scale of our mission, we cannot default to operating as a heavily-layered organization. We must be a lean, hyper-focused team where every single individual is empowered to make a massive impact,” he said. 

Crypto layoffs roll on

Robinhood is far from the only crypto‑linked firm cutting staff at a time when the price of Bitcoin and other digital currencies has been slumping, and trading has remained sluggish compared to the crypto boom of 2024. 

Last month, Coinbase, one of the largest centralized exchanges, said it had cut about 14% of its staff. In March, Crypto.com and Algorand announced layoffs as well, with Algorand reducing its workforce by about 25%. Other firms that announced staff cuts in the first quarter of the year include Block, Polygon, and Gemini.

Despite its layoff announcement, Robinhood is in strong financial shape. The company earned $350 million in profit in the first quarter of 2026, slightly higher than a year earlier, according to its most recent Form 10-Q filing. The company also brought in $1.07 billion in revenue, up 15% year over year.

While crypto trading revenue has slumped, Robinhood has offset some of that weakness with growth in options trading, interest income, and newer lines like prediction markets and credit cards. 

Its push into prediction markets linked to events like the World Cup has opened a fresh revenue stream and pulled in highly active traders, softening the blow from slower spot crypto volumes. Total assets on its platform rose to about $307 billion, and its customer base and premium “Gold” subscription tier both continued to grow.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com