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DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2022
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
NOTE 1: DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Robinhood Markets, Inc. (“RHM” and, together with its subsidiaries, “Robinhood,” the “Company,” “we,” or “us”) was incorporated in the State of Delaware on November 22, 2013. Our most significant, wholly-owned subsidiaries are:
Robinhood Financial LLC (“RHF”), a registered introducing broker-dealer;
Robinhood Securities, LLC (“RHS”), a registered clearing broker-dealer;
Robinhood Crypto, LLC (“RHC”), which provides users the ability to buy, sell, and transfer cryptocurrencies; and
Robinhood Money, LLC (“RHY”), which offers a pre-paid debit card (the “Robinhood Cash Card”) and a spending account that help customers invest, save, and earn rewards.
Acting as the agent of the user, we facilitate the purchase and sale of options, cryptocurrencies, and equities through our platform by routing transactions through market makers, who are responsible for trade execution. Upon execution of a trade, users are legally required to purchase options, cryptocurrencies, or equities for cash from the transaction counterparty or to sell options, cryptocurrencies, or equities for cash to the transaction counterparty, depending on the transaction. We facilitate and confirm trades only when there are binding, matched legal obligations from the user and the market maker on both sides of the trade. Our users have ownership of the securities they transact on our platform, including those that collateralize margin loans, and, as a result, such securities are not presented on our unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets, other than user-held fractional shares which are presented gross. Our users also have ownership of the cryptocurrencies they transact on our platform (none of which are allowed to be purchased on margin and which do not serve as collateral for margin loans); however, following our adoption of Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 (“SAB 121”), we recognize a liability to reflect our safeguarding obligation along with a corresponding asset on our balance sheet related to the cryptocurrencies we hold in custody for users (refer to Note 2 for more information on the recent adoption of SAB 121).
On August 2, 2021, we closed our initial public offering (“IPO”) of 55.0 million shares of Class A common stock. On August 31, 2021, we sold an additional 4.4 million shares of Class A common stock pursuant to the option granted to the underwriters to purchase additional shares.
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”) and pursuant to the rules and regulations of the SEC for interim financial reporting. The condensed consolidated financial statements are unaudited, and in management’s opinion, include all adjustments, including normal recurring adjustments and accruals necessary for a fair presentation of the results for the interim periods presented. Operating results for the periods presented are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the full fiscal year ending December 31, 2022 or any future period. These unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited annual consolidated financial statements and notes included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 (“2021 Form 10-K”).
There have been no material changes in our significant accounting policies as described in our consolidated financial statements included in our audited annual consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2021, other than recently adopted accounting pronouncements as described in
Note 2. The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of RHM and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated. Certain prior-period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current period’s presentation. The impact of these reclassifications is immaterial to the presentation of the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.
Use of Estimates
In accordance with GAAP, management is required to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, and expenses, as well as related disclosures, on the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements. We base our estimates on current and historical experience and other assumptions we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Assumptions and estimates used in preparing our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include those related to revenue recognition, the determination of allowances for credit losses, the capitalization and estimated useful life of internally developed software, investment valuation, valuation of user cryptocurrencies safeguarding obligation and the corresponding asset, contingent liabilities, useful lives of property and equipment, the incremental borrowing rate used to determine the present value of lease payments, the valuation and recognition of share-based compensation, the valuation of the convertible notes and warrant liability, the valuation and estimated useful lives of acquired intangible assets, uncertain tax positions, accrued liabilities, and the recognition and measurement of current and deferred income tax assets and liabilities. Actual results could differ from these estimates and could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.
Concentration of Revenue and Credit Risk
Concentrations of Revenue
We derived transaction-based revenues from individual market makers in excess of 10% of total revenues, as follows:
Three Months Ended
September 30,
Nine Months Ended
September 30,
2021202220212022
Market maker:
Citadel Securities, LLC23 %12 %21 %17 %
Entities affiliated with Susquehanna International Group, LLP(1)
13 %%11 %%
Entities affiliated with Wolverine Holdings, L.P.(2)
13 %%10 %%
Tai Mo Shan Limited(3)
%%17 %%
All others individually less than 10%16 %30 %19 %25 %
Total as percentage of total revenue:73 %56 %78 %63 %
________________
(1)Consists of Global Execution Brokers, LP and G1X Execution Services, LLC
(2)Consists of Wolverine Execution Services, LLC and Wolverine Securities, LLC
(3)Member of Jump Trading Group

Concentrations of Credit
We are engaged in various trading and brokerage activities in which the counterparties primarily include broker-dealers, banks, and other financial institutions. In the event our counterparties do not fulfill their obligations, we may be exposed to risk. The risk of default depends on the creditworthiness of the counterparty. Default of a counterparty in equities and options trades, which are facilitated through
clearinghouses, would generally be spread among the clearinghouse's members rather than falling entirely on us. It is our policy to review, as necessary, the credit standing of each counterparty.
Cryptocurrencies
We act as an agent in the cryptocurrency transactions that users initiate on our platform (i.e., in their RHC accounts). We have determined we are an agent, for accounting purposes, because we do not control the cryptocurrency before delivery to the user, we are not primarily responsible for the delivery of cryptocurrency to our users, we are not exposed to risks arising from fluctuations of the market price of cryptocurrency before delivery to the user, and we do not set the prices charged to users. After purchasing cryptocurrency on the platform, users are the legal owners of cryptocurrency held under custody by us and users have all the rights and benefits of ownership, including the rights to appreciation and depreciation of the cryptocurrency. We do not allow users to purchase cryptocurrency on margin and cryptocurrency does not serve as collateral for margin loans. We hold cryptocurrency in custody for users in one or more omnibus cryptocurrency wallets; we do not utilize third-party custodians. We hold cryptographic key information and maintain internal record keeping for the cryptocurrencies we hold in custody for users, and we are obligated to secure such assets from loss or theft. Based on the terms of our user agreement and applicable law, we believe the cryptocurrency we hold in custody for users of our platform should be respected as users’ property (and should not be available to satisfy the claims of our general creditors) in the event we were to enter bankruptcy. For additional information relating to platform bankruptcy generally, see Item 2, Part II of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Cryptocurrency Products and Services—Cryptocurrency laws, regulations, and accounting standards are often difficult to interpret and are rapidly evolving in ways that are difficult to predict. Changes in these laws and regulations, or our failure to comply with them, could negatively impact cryptocurrency trading on our platform.”
Securities Borrowing and Lending
We operate a securities lending program under which shares that users have pledged to us to collateralize their margin borrowing are lent by us to third parties (“Margin Securities Lending”) and a securities lending program under which we borrow fully-paid shares from participating users and lend them to third parties (“Fully-Paid Securities Lending”). We also occasionally borrow securities from third parties for operational purposes, and we occasionally lend to third parties securities that we hold for our own account (such as our holdings to support fractional share operations).

When we lend securities to third parties, the borrower provides cash as collateral. We earn interest revenue on cash collateral deposited by borrowers, and we can also earn additional revenue for lending certain securities based on demand for those securities. For our Fully-Paid Securities Lending, portions of such revenues are paid to participating users, and those payments are recorded as interest expense. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, interest revenue earned and interest expenses incurred related to the Fully-Paid Securities Lending program were not material.

When we borrow securities from users participating in the Fully-Paid Securities Lending program (or from third parties), we provide cash as collateral and we record a receivable representing our right to the return of that collateral. Commencing in the quarter ended September 30, 2022, the amount of that receivable is presented in "securities borrowed" on our consolidated balance sheets. Prior period amounts (which were not material) have been reclassified to conform to the current presentation. In the case of our Fully-Paid Securities Lending program, the cash collateral is held by a third-party bank in a deposit account pledged to the user, which we administer as the user’s agent. Users are not entitled to interest on such account, and any interest earned is for our benefit.

Our authorization from users to lend shares that collateralize their margin borrowing is found in our margin account agreement, our borrowing of fully-paid shares from users is conducted under the terms of our Fully-Paid Securities Lending program to which users consent when they enroll in that program, and substantially all of our securities lending and borrowing transactions with third parties are conducted
under the terms of an industry-standard master securities loan agreement (“MSLA”), which has an open contractual term and may be terminated upon notice by either party. We have also entered into fixed-term securities lending agreements with two financial institution counterparties (the “Fixed-Term Securities Lending Agreements”). One of these agreements has a contractual term of 30 days per lending transaction with a daily minimum commitment of $25 million and the other has a contractual term of 21 days per lending transaction with a daily minimum commitment of $35 million. Under these two agreements we lend to the counterparties (for a fixed term) securities that collateralize users’ margin borrowing, and we obtain cash collateral from the counterparties that we use to provide liquidity support for our margin lending to users.
Each of the MSLAs and Fixed-Term Securities Lending Agreements establishes a master netting arrangement between the lender and the borrower. A master netting arrangement is an agreement between two counterparties that creates a right of set-off for amounts due to and from that same counterparty that is enforceable in the event of a default or bankruptcy. In connection with our securities borrowing and lending activities, however, our policy is to recognize all amounts that are subject to master netting arrangements on a gross basis in our consolidated balance sheets even though some of those amounts may be eligible for offset (i.e., to be presented on a net basis) under GAAP. Refer to Note 9 for more information and the gross presentation in tabular format.
Variable Interest Entities
We evaluate our ownership, contractual and other interests in entities to determine if we have a variable interest in an entity. These evaluations are complex, involve judgment, and the use of estimates and assumptions based on available historical and prospective information, among other factors. If we determine that an entity for which we hold a contractual or ownership interest in is a variable interest entity (“VIE”) and that we are the primary beneficiary, we consolidate such entity in the consolidated financial statements. The primary beneficiary of a VIE is the party that meets both of the following criteria: (1) has the power to make decisions that most significantly affect the economic performance of the VIE; and (2) has the obligation to absorb losses or the right to receive benefits that in either case could potentially be significant to the VIE. Periodically, we determine whether any changes in the interest or relationship with the entity impacts the determination of whether we are still the primary beneficiary. If we are not deemed to be the primary beneficiary in a VIE, we account for the investment or other variable interests in a VIE in accordance with applicable GAAP.
Non-Marketable Equity Securities
Investments in equity securities without readily determinable fair values are initially recorded at cost and are subsequently adjusted to fair value for impairments and price changes from observable transactions in the same or a similar security from the same issuer. Non-marketable equity securities were not material for the periods presented and were included in other non-current assets on the unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets.