Retail Trading Apps Chase High-Net-Worth Retail in Shift From Free-Trade Roots

The retail brokers that spent the last decade pitching themselves as the anti-Wall Street alternative are quietly rebuilding their product stacks to look a lot like the firms they set out to disrupt, Bloomberg reported last week. Robinhood Markets, Revolut and Public.com are rolling out premium credit cards, concierge lines and invitation-only events aimed at customers with six- and seven-figure balances.

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Deepak Rao, vice president and general manager of Robinhood Money, told Bloomberg the logic behind the push is retention. "The crux of our strategy is making sure people who got wealth on our platform don't graduate," Rao said, in comments framed as an effort to keep high-balance clients from migrating to Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.

Customer Base Ages and Balances Climb

The strategic rationale comes down to demographics. The median age of a Robinhood customer has moved to 36 from 31 five years ago, according to figures cited by Bloomberg. The firm now reports more than 300,000 customers with balances above $100,000, a number the company said is up more than 250% since 2022.

eToro's Club program counted more than 720,000 members at the end of last year, compared with 579,000 a year earlier. The platform's top Diamond tier, reserved for clients holding $250,000 or more, offers tickets to selected sporting events, airport lounge access, and a Visa card that returns 4% in stock rewards. eToro earlier added a $4.99 monthly Club subscription that unlocks Platinum-tier perks without the balance requirement.

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Public.com runs an invite-only concierge service for customers with at least half a million dollars in assets or high trading activity, and the company told Bloomberg the program has continued to grow.

A Race to Own the Wealth Relationship

The lines between retail trading Retail Trading In finance, retail trading refers to individual traders, trading through a broker, or on a platform. This can include novice traders and experienced traders. Trading and investing are divided into two categories, retail and institutional. Institutions include investment banks like JP Morgan or Citibank and global central banks like the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. When we talk about retail trading however, we usually are referring to forex trading, but there are retail trade In finance, retail trading refers to individual traders, trading through a broker, or on a platform. This can include novice traders and experienced traders. Trading and investing are divided into two categories, retail and institutional. Institutions include investment banks like JP Morgan or Citibank and global central banks like the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. When we talk about retail trading however, we usually are referring to forex trading, but there are retail trade Read this Term apps, neobanks and private banks are blurring at an accelerating pace. Robinhood's most direct move came with its $300 million acquisition of TradePMR in November 2024, which the firm used as the foundation for Robinhood Advisor Network, a referral marketplace that went live in March targeting users with at least $250,000 in investable assets.

Revolut has taken a parallel route through private banking. The London-based fintech has been hiring multi-lingual private bankers and was reportedly in talks with Blackstone about integrating private-market products into its planned private banking offering. Revolut's wealth division was its fastest-growing segment last year, and the firm reported £1.7 billion in pretax profit for 2025 on revenue of £4.5 billion.

What differs from the incumbent playbook is the customer funnel. Where Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan onboard through relationship bankers, the digital-first firms are trying to convert existing retail users as their balances grow.

Premium Card Perks and an Analyst's Verdict

Robinhood unveiled its new $695-a-year platinum card at an event held at the TWA hotel at New York's JFK airport. The card, which the company said is plated with 99.9% pure platinum and weighs 17 grams, carries 5% cash back on dining, a $250 annual DoorDash credit, and 10% back on hotels and rental cars. It builds on the original Robinhood Gold Card launched in 2024.

Ted Rossman, a principal analyst at Bankrate, was not convinced by the value proposition. "My honest opinion is that this card isn't as good as AmEx Platinum or the Chase Sapphire," Rossman told Bloomberg, pointing to the DoorDash credit structure as "a lot more restrictive than it looks."

Family Office Ambitions and Trust Baggage

For the fintech Fintech Financial Technology (fintech) is defined as ay technology that is geared towards automating and enhancing the delivery and application of financial services. The origin of the term fintechs can be traced back to the 1990s where it was primarily used as a back-end system technology for renowned financial institutions. However, it has since grown outside the business sector with an increased focus upon consumer services.What Purpose Do Fintechs Serve?The main purpose of fintechs would be to suppl Financial Technology (fintech) is defined as ay technology that is geared towards automating and enhancing the delivery and application of financial services. The origin of the term fintechs can be traced back to the 1990s where it was primarily used as a back-end system technology for renowned financial institutions. However, it has since grown outside the business sector with an increased focus upon consumer services.What Purpose Do Fintechs Serve?The main purpose of fintechs would be to suppl Read this Term executives making the pitch, the long-term target is becoming the primary financial relationship for maturing customers. eToro Chief Executive Yoni Assia told Bloomberg the platform's elite program will soon be expanded. "Eventually I would want to see eToro as your family office," Assia said. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has used similar language, describing his vision as a "family office in your pocket".

Whether the brokers can actually pull off the move upmarket is another question. Abigail Sussman, a marketing professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, told Bloomberg that direction of travel matters. "It's a lot easier for a brand that starts out as a high prestige brand to go mass-market," she said.

Trust has been a recurring complication. Robinhood agreed in 2021 to a $70 million FINRA fine over alleged supervisory and customer-communication failures, without admitting or denying the findings. eToro in 2024 agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle SEC allegations that it had operated as an unregistered broker and clearing agency in the United States.

For now, the pivot remains a work in progress. Robinhood's revenue base is still closely tied to transaction volumes and crypto sentiment, and eToro's latest filings show crypto trading at roughly 91% of the top line. Whether affluent retail customers consolidate their financial lives inside apps that first onboarded them with free trades will take several reporting cycles to answer.