📈 Robinhood Rockets Into the SP 500 — While Strategy Gets Left Behind

From meme-stock chaos to Wall Street validation: Robinhood just secured a spot in the SP 500. Meanwhile, Strategy (the Bitcoin whale formerly known as MicroStrategy) got snubbed, despite sitting on 70B worth of BTC.

⚡ Quick Hits

• 💵 Robinhood stock: Closed 101.3 → surged past 108 after-hours
• 📈 YTD gains: +150% (beating Nasdaq + SP benchmarks)
• 💰 Q2 revenue: 989M (+45% YoY)
• 🧾 Q2 net income: 386M (0.42 EPS, beat estimates)
• 🪙 Crypto revenue: 160M (up YoY, down from 252M in Q1)
• 📊 Options trading: 265M (biggest segment)
• 🗓️ SP 500 inclusion date: Sept 22, 2025
• 🏦 Strategy: 95B valuation | 70B in Bitcoin holdings | excluded

🦅 Robinhood Finally Makes the Cut

SP Dow Jones Indices announced Robinhood + AppLovin will join the SP 500 on September 22. Investors popped champagne early — HOOD spiked 7% in after-hours trading.

Why it matters: Robinhood has gone from meme-era punchline to mainstream player, with fundamentals to back it up:

• Revenue up 45% YoY to 989M.
• Net income smashing forecasts at 386M.
• Crypto trading revenue nearly doubled YoY to 160M.
• Options trading leads the charge with 265M.

With shares soaring 150% in 2025, Robinhood is now outpacing traditional benchmarks and redefining what a retail + crypto brokerage can be.

🪙 Strategy: Too Much Bitcoin for Wall Street?

On the flip side, Strategy — the Bitcoin-hoarding giant formerly known as MicroStrategy — didn’t make the SP 500 cut.

• Market cap: 95B
• BTC holdings: 70B
• Reputation: OG corporate Bitcoin adopter

But Wall Street’s gatekeepers passed. Why? Analysts point to volatility and Bitcoin dependency as red flags, despite institutional adoption of crypto accelerating elsewhere. Strategy’s stock slid 3% on the news.

⚖️ Robinhood’s Legal and Regulatory Brawls

Robinhood’s rise isn’t all smooth sailing.

• U.S. showdown: Robinhood Derivatives is suing Nevada + New Jersey regulators over sports event contracts, arguing rivals like Kalshi get federal CFTC blessings while they’re blocked at the state level.
• EU heat: Lithuania’s central bank is probing Robinhood’s tokenized stock products (launched June 2025), tied to private firms like OpenAI + SpaceX. OpenAI immediately denied involvement, warning investors.

Takeaway: Robinhood is innovating fast, but also poking regulators at every turn.

🚨 Why It Matters

Robinhood’s SP 500 debut is more than a flex — it’s proof the platform has leveled up from meme-culture brokerage to financial institution. But Strategy’s exclusion shows that Wall Street still isn’t ready to hand over index credibility to Bitcoin-maxi treasuries.

• Robinhood = mainstream validation + regulatory battles.
• Strategy = institutional scale, but still crypto outsider.
• Wall Street = cautious, even as crypto edges deeper into the system.

✍️ TL;DR

Robinhood’s in, Strategy’s out. Robinhood will join the SP 500 on Sept 22, after a year of 150% stock growth and strong crypto-driven revenue. Strategy, despite holding 70B in Bitcoin, got snubbed — highlighting Wall Street’s lingering caution around Bitcoin-heavy firms. Robinhood now faces both validation and regulation, while Strategy keeps betting everything on BTC.