Robinhood

Is Robinhood safe?

For holding shares, yes: the protections behind a US Robinhood account are the same ones that stand behind much older brokers. Your securities are held by Robinhood Securities, LLC, a SEC-registered clearing broker, kept apart from the company's own money, and backed by SIPC plus a private excess policy. The parent, Robinhood Markets, is listed on Nasdaq and made $1.88 billion in 2025. We score it 75/100.

What holds the score back is Robinhood's record, not the custody. Since 2020 it has paid more than $200 million in US fines and restitution, and two events, the March 2020 outages and the January 2021 trading restrictions, left customers unable to trade when it mattered.

Which Robinhood company holds my account?

Where you live	Company	Regulator	Protection
United States	Robinhood Financial LLC (broker) and Robinhood Securities LLC (clearing, custody)	SEC, FINRA	SIPC $500,000 incl. $250,000 cash, plus excess policy
United Kingdom	Robinhood U.K. Ltd; shares held by Robinhood Securities in the US	FCA	SIPC and excess policy; FSCSDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary only for ISA cash held by Quai
United Kingdom, crypto (since August 2026)	Bitstamp UK Ltd	FCA cryptoasset registration only	No SIPC, FSCS or Financial Ombudsman cover
EU	Robinhood Europe, UAB	Bank of Lithuania (MiFID, MiCAMiCAThe EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, which requires crypto exchanges and other providers to be licensed and supervised.More in the glossary)	Stock Tokens are crypto, not shares

We score the US entities, which hold most customers. UK customers should note that their shares sit with the same US clearing firm, so their safety net is SIPC rather than the UK's FSCS. In the EU, Robinhood's main stock product since June 2025 is "Stock Tokens", crypto tokens that track US shares. Those are not shares held in your name, and the Bank of Lithuania has asked Robinhood for clarifications about them.

Crypto is a separate business. It is not covered by SIPC, and we rate it on its own page, Robinhood Crypto. Since 10 August 2026 UK customers can also buy more than 50 cryptoassets in the main app. Those trades run through Bitstamp UK Ltd, the exchange Robinhood bought, which is registered with the FCA for anti-money launderingAnti-money launderingThe rules and checks that stop criminals from moving illegal money through banks, payment firms and crypto exchanges.More in the glossary purposes; neither the FSCS nor the Financial Ombudsman covers them.

How is cash protected at Robinhood?

Uninvested cash in the sweep programme is moved to deposits at a network of program banks, where it is FDIC-insuredDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary up to $250,000 per bank, per ownership category. Robinhood's sweep terms say that when the eligible banks are full, extra cash goes to "excess banks" without regard to the FDIC limit. That matters only for large balances, but if you hold a lot of cash, read the bank list in the app and count any deposits you already hold at those banks.

The excess policy covers securities and cash up to $50 million per customer, including $1.9 million of cash, once SIPC limits are used up. The total for all customers is capped at $1 billion. With 28.4 million funded customers and $368.7 billion of platform assets at mid-2026, that cap is small next to what Robinhood holds, though it would only be needed if client assets actually went missing in a failure.

Outages and the GameStop restrictions

On 2, 3 and 9 March 2020, as markets fell sharply, Robinhood's US platform went down and customers could not trade. FINRA later found that Robinhood had poor supervision of its technology and sent customers false or misleading information about options and margin. In June 2021 it ordered a $57 million fine, then FINRA's largest ever, plus about $12.6 million of restitution. Massachusetts added a $7.5 million fine in January 2024 covering the same outages and other failures.

From 28 January to 5 February 2021, Robinhood limited purchases of GameStop, AMC and other volatile shares. Its clearing firm's deposit requirement at the NSCC clearing house had jumped, and Robinhood had to raise new capital to lift the limits. Customers could still sell but not buy. Robinhood's filings say a similar event could happen again if clearing deposits spike.

The fines keep coming

The list is long:

• December 2020: $65 million to the SEC over order-routing and payment-for-order-flow disclosures.
• August 2022: $30 million to New York's financial regulator, in the crypto unit.
• January 2025: $45 million to the SEC for more than ten violations, including late suspicious-activity reports from 2020 to 2022 and failures linked to the 2021 breach.
• March 2025: $26 million to FINRA plus about $3.75 million of restitution, for anti-money-launderingAnti-money launderingThe rules and checks that stop criminals from moving illegal money through banks, payment firms and crypto exchanges.More in the glossary, supervision and disclosure failures.

The New York attorney general has been investigating Robinhood's execution quality since July 2023. None of these cases found that client assets were lost, which is why investor protection scores well while conduct sits at 40.

Financial strength

Robinhood lost money in most years until 2024. Since then it has been solidly profitable, with net income of $1.41 billion in 2024 and $1.88 billion in 2025. At 30 June 2026 Robinhood Securities held $3.95 billion of regulatory net capital against a requirement of $504 million. Rate cuts would reduce interest income, which makes up a large share of revenue, but the buffer is wide.

How to keep your Robinhood account safe

1. Turn on two-factor authenticationTwo-factor authenticationSigning in with a second proof of identity on top of your password, such as a code from an app, a security key or a passkey.More in the glossary with an authenticator app or a passkeyPasskeyA way to sign in without a password. Your device holds a key tied to one website or app and unlocks it with your fingerprint, face or PIN.More in the glossary rather than text messages.
2. Expect phishing: the 2021 breach leaked millions of emails and names. Robinhood support will not ask for your password or a login code.
3. If you keep large cash balances, check how much of your sweep cash sits at each bank.
4. In the UK, remember the FSCSDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary does not cover your brokerage account; in the EU, Stock Tokens are not shares.

How we scored it

Regulation (90) and investor protection (84) are Robinhood's strong points: top-tier US regulators, segregated custody and excess cover. Conduct (40) is the weakest, after a decade of fines and two episodes when customers could not trade. Account security (65) reflects the 2021 breach and the SEC's findings about it.