Full Breakdown
Robinhood Unveils AI-Powered Trading Agents, Weekend Equity Trading and Crypto Perpetual Futures
By Drooid · · How we work
Core Event: AI agents and 24-hour market access roll out
On September 29, 2026, Robinhood Markets Inc. announced that its roughly 29 million customers can now use “Robinhood Agents,” AI trading agents built on OpenAI and Anthropic models. Users name an agent, select a model (e.g., OpenAI’s GPT-6 Luna or Anthropic’s Opus 4.8), and issue plain-English commands to trade, research or run continuous strategies (“Loops”). The brokerage also launched weekend trading for a curated list of U.S. stocks and ETFs via the Bruce ATS venue and introduced crypto perpetual-future contracts with up to 10× leverage through its Bitstamp exchange.
Background & Context
Robinhood added round-the-clock weekday trading in 2023 and a “24 Hour Market” that paused on weekends. Earlier in 2026 the firm released a developer-focused “MCP” tool that let technically skilled users connect external AI agents; more than 150 000 agentic accounts were created during that pilot. The September launch removes the technical barrier, making AI agents available to the entire retail base.
Data & Statistics
- Agent usage: Over 150 000 customers have opened agentic accounts; agents generate roughly 30 million API calls per day.
- Trading volume: Equity notional volume reached about $267 billion through Sept. 24, with ? 234 million options contracts and ? 17 billion crypto-related notional volume.
- Perpetual futures: New contracts cover Bitcoin and Ether with up to 10× leverage; other tokens start at 3×.
- Weekend trading: Initially a select basket of stocks and ETFs will be available on Saturdays and Sundays, pending SEC review.
Official Statements & Responses
Robinhood frames the rollout as a democratization of tools traditionally reserved for hedge funds and quant firms. The company emphasizes guardrails: each agent operates from a dedicated trading account, users can set position-size limits, and a confirmation step can require manual approval before any order executes. For the launch period, the lower-end GPT-6 Luna model is offered free; higher-tier models are billed at the standard token rate. Robinhood notes that the weekend-trading service is built in partnership with Bruce ATS and that earnings-based prediction contracts will be delivered through Cboe, subject to regulatory clearance.
Verbatim Quotes
- “Ownership doesn’t work without markets, and markets don’t work without traders,” — Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev
- “When the world reacts in real time to breaking news, waiting to adjust a position or rebalance a hedge until the clock strikes 9:30 on Monday morning may beget missed opportunities ?or additional risk, especially these days,” — SEC Chair Paul Atkins
What’s Next
Robinhood plans to roll out earnings-prediction contracts in the coming weeks and expand weekend-trading coverage beyond the initial list. The firm also intends to broaden AI-agent capabilities, adding more data-provider integrations and refining the “Loops” feature. All enhancements remain subject to regulatory approval.
