Markets Robinhood has unveiled an AI trading agent for its customers, enabling trades to be executed at any time, even in the early morning hours. Additionally, users will soon have the ability to trade crypto perpetual futures.

Robinhood's AI Trading Agent and Crypto Perpetual Futures

By Omkar Godbole Sep 30, 2026, 1:59 a.m. EDT 3 min read

Robinhood, which trades on Nasdaq under the ticker HOOD, is launching a new AI-driven tool designed to trade on behalf of its users. This feature will allow customers to set trading strategies and execute trades around the clock.

During the HOOD Summit in Houston, Robinhood announced the introduction of Robinhood Agents, which will be integrated into its mobile application. This AI tool can analyze market conditions, develop trading strategies, and execute trades at any hour.

Unlike traditional chatbots that simply respond to inquiries, these AI agents can actively manage trades for users, adhering to limits set by the customers themselves.

With this development, Robinhood aims to democratize automated trading, a capability previously available mainly to institutional investors such as hedge funds. Following a previous launch that allowed tech-savvy users to connect their own AI agents, over 150,000 customers have opened accounts for this purpose, utilizing Robinhood's tools nearly 30 million times daily.

Now, all users can participate. They can assign a name to their AI agent, create a dedicated account, and select an AI model from various providers, including OpenAI. Notably, the GPT-Luna model from OpenAI will be available free of charge until the year's end.

This announcement aligns with a growing industry trend where AI agents manage financial tasks on behalf of users. For instance, Meta's Muse assistant can already access users' financial information, and Coinbase's x402 protocol enables agents to make payments in stablecoins without human intervention. However, concerns have been raised regarding these technologies. For example, Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Slok cautioned that if households allow AI agents to automatically move cash to the highest-yielding accounts, banks might lose a significant portion of the low-cost deposits they depend on for lending.

Trading presents another potential issue. A multitude of agents operating on similar algorithms could converge on the same trades simultaneously, potentially amplifying minor market fluctuations. Currently, such risks are largely theoretical, as the technology is still in its early stages.

Upcoming features include "Loops," which will allow users to set continuous trading instructions for their agents. For instance, an agent could monitor the market daily and execute trades based on specific criteria or run strategies overnight while the user sleeps. Robinhood has indicated that Loops will be available soon.

"Whether you're an expert or just starting with AI, using Robinhood gives you an advantage," stated Abhishek Fatehpuria, Robinhood's VP of Product Management.

There are safeguards in place: an AI agent can only manage funds within its designated account, and trades require user approval by default, although this can be turned off if desired.

Furthermore, Robinhood is set to introduce perpetual futures—a popular crypto trading product—available to eligible U.S. customers through its app. Perpetual futures, or perps, are bets on cryptocurrency prices that do not expire and are primarily traded on offshore exchanges, representing a significant portion of crypto trading with daily volumes exceeding $200 billion.

Users will be required to provide a margin deposit, allowing them to control positions larger than their initial investment. Robinhood will offer up to 10x leverage on bitcoin and ether, and 3x on SOL, XRP, DOGE, ADA, LINK, and HYPE. This means that a 10% adverse price movement on a 10x leveraged position could result in a total loss.

Robinhood plans to provide these perps via Bitstamp, the crypto exchange it acquired last year, and will charge a competitive fee of just 0.01% per trade until the end of the year.

These two recent initiatives indicate Robinhood's commitment to attracting active traders by offering leveraged trading options and an AI capable of executing trades at all hours. "We are making Robinhood the premier platform for active traders by providing tools that were once exclusive to hedge funds, major banks, and quantitative firms," said CEO Vlad Tenev.

Both the AI agents and perpetual futures are expected to be rolled out soon to eligible U.S. customers.