Robinhood Cuts 7% of Workforce Amid Slowdown in Trading Volumes

Stock brokerage app Robinhood has laid off about 150 employees, or 7% of its workforce.

The job cuts were made in response to a slowdown in trading volumes and to “better align team structures,” The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Monday (June 26), citing an internal company message from Robinhood Chief Financial Officer Jason Warnick.

Reached by PYMNTS, a Robinhood spokesperson provided a statement saying: “We’re ensuring operational excellence in how we work together on an ongoing basis. In some cases, this may mean teams make changes based on volume, workload, org design, and more.”

The job cuts included roles in customer experience and platform shared services; customer trust and safety; and safety and productivity, according to the WSJ report.

Monday’s layoffs were the company’s third round of job cuts in just over a year, totaling a reduction of more than 1,000 positions, the report said.

Robinhood laid off 9% of its full-time employees in April 2022 and laid off 23% of its staff in August 2022, pointing to a slowdown in customers’ trading.

During Robinhood’s most recent earnings call, the company reported that while its monthly active users (MAU) increased by around 400,000 to 11.8 million for the most recent quarter, that total was nearly half of the platform’s 21.3 million MAU count during retail investing’s peak in the second quarter of 2021.

The trading app’s first quarter 2023 MAU of 11.8 million represented a 26% year-over-year decline in activity.

Its notional crypto trading volumes were down 46% year over year while its equity trading was down 20% year over year.

Monday’s news comes four days after Robinhood announced its acquisition of X1, a FinTech company that offers users a no-fee income-based credit card with rewards on each purchase.

As PYMNTS reported Thursday (June 22), the acquisition is a significant step for Robinhood as it continues to diversify its offerings and revenue streams. With transaction-based revenue declining for the fifth straight quarter in the first quarter, company executives have emphasized the company’s ability to diversify further via subscription revenue from its Gold account, retirement accounts and debit card offerings.