Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev Talks Trump Accounts

**Romaine Bostick** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

**Katie Greifeld** (0:07)
Let's talk a bit more about those Trump accounts, because Robinhood shares Closing Higher, the company involved in the rollout of this program. I'm pleased to say that CEO Vlad Tenev joins us now from the White House. Vlad, great to have you with us. So the Trump Accounts app, of course, it was built in partnership with the Bank of New York and with Robinhood. The actual app has been available for download since about late May or so, ahead of that July 4th launch. Talk to us about the uptake you've seen in terms of interests and downloads, etc. Heading into the launch and now a few days post.

**Vlad Tenev** (0:43)
Yeah. Thank you for having me, Katie.
The uptake has been tremendous.
The aspiration from the beginning was to make this the best product that the government has ever been associated with. And we had 6 million kids sign up pre-launch and express interest. Millions of accounts have already been invested. And the app has basically been living at or near the top of the App Store chart. So it's continuing to accelerate. More and more people are downloading it, setting up accounts for their families. This weekend, the first investment started rolling in and the money started flowing in. And every newborn born after January 1st, 2025 gets an initial thousand dollars for free seeded from the US. Treasury. So this is a no-brainer for new parents, but also amazing for anyone under the age of 18 And there's 70 million individuals that we believe this could be the best mechanism for them to get ownership from a young age in the US equity markets, which as you guys know, have been the greatest engine of wealth creation in human history. So we're proud to serve as initial broker and trustee in partnership with DNY as the financial agent powering this great transformative program.

**Katie Greifeld** (2:06)
And last week, we heard from the Treasury announcing the funds that will be involved. The State Street ETF, the ticker SPI-M, is going to be the default fund. But in announcing the fund line of Treasury said in a statement that in the coming months, Treasury expects to make available functionality that will allow parents or guardians to choose how to allocate funds across the additional investment options. But until that functionality is available, all of those contributions will remain invested in the default fund, which again is SPI-M. I was wondering if you could shed light on what functionality means in this context, what sort of the wiring and the back end of setting this all up has looked like.

**Vlad Tenev** (2:48)
Yeah. I mean, the balance that we have to reach is between enabling personal choice and individual choice and balancing that with the need to make sure that these children benefit from the power of compound interest, which Albert Einstein described as the eighth wonder of the world. Compound interest is incredibly powerful. If you take that initial $1,000 and add $100 a month to the account, assuming a fairly conservative 7 percent annual rate of return, that turns into millions of dollars by retirement age.
It actually makes a huge difference the earlier you start. So, starting at age zero is like much, much better than starting even at age 18 or most people in their 30s. So, we want to make sure that the children benefit from the compounding as early as possible.

**Romaine Bostick** (3:48)
I am curious, Vlad. So then, I am curious just about how long-term this potentially benefits Robinhood. Obviously, for a lot of kids, their first contact with the investment world to a certain extent, is going to be through Robinhood or at least their parents, and eventually, the kids themselves. Is the idea here not so much just, okay, whatever the compounding effect of the thousand, but also an educational component about how to manage money and invest in other ways as they grow and get to adulthood and can do so on their own?

**Vlad Tenev** (4:20)
Well, Romaine, so Robinhood has always been about ownership. We want to make everyone an owner. We believe that the future that's owned by the few is inherently fragile, and so broad ownership is essential to have a stable and prosperous and free society.
And right now, the US sits at about 62% of individuals' own equities. With Trump accounts, we think that can get up to 95%.
And I think we spend a lot of time talking about the benefits to the individuals. They could make more money, they could secure their own financial future, but I think what's under reported is the societal benefits. So, if you own something and you're not just a consumer or renter, you care about it, you become a staunch defender. And I think we've seen our free market system come under increasing attack in recent years. And I think the best antidote to that is to make everyone an owner and everyone have skin in the game in the most powerful and impactful companies that are local to this country.