The Robinhoods who are anti-Wall Street are starting to serve the wealthy.

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Written by: Charlie Wells, Paulina Cachero

Translated by: Chopper, Foresight News

Those popular trading apps that gained fame for fee-free trading, fractional shares, and retail investor concepts, claiming to promote “financial democratization,” are moving toward elitism.

Robinhood, eToro, Revolut, and Public.com were once labeled as “young people trading stocks in their parents’ basement.” Now, these brokerages are offering airport lounge access, dinners, and F1 race tickets to investors. They have launched high-end credit cards with an annual fee of $695, providing exclusive concierge services for clients with account balances of a million dollars or more, and are venturing into complex tax planning, wealth management, and even trust accounts to compete with traditional established institutions.

A few months ago, 29-year-old David Easterwood pulled out a Robinhood gold card weighing 17 grams to buy a cowboy hat, and the clerk said to him, “You must be very wealthy.”

He certainly is. This retail trader from Phoenix registered with Robinhood in 2019, just after turning 18, with his first trades in a few shares of Ford, followed by stocks of McDonald’s and other food companies. He says his account “completely exploded” in 2023. According to screenshots of his account provided to Bloomberg News, since September of that year, he has made over $885k in profit.

In addition to owning a Robinhood credit card, Easterwood also subscribed to Robinhood’s concierge service, which is only available to users with assets over $1 million or high platform activity.

“No matter if I have a hundred dollars or a hundred million in my account,” he said, “I will stay with Robinhood.”

David Easterwood using his Robinhood gold card to buy the cowboy hat

As the client base ages and accumulates wealth, this is precisely the atmosphere that trading platforms are trying to create. During the pandemic, Robinhood and similar platforms built an image of low-cost, “financial democratization” catering to retail investors, portraying young, anti-authority, anti-Wall Street sentiments.

The median age of Robinhood users has risen from 31 five years ago to 36 now. The company currently has over 300k clients with assets exceeding $100k, a growth of more than 250% since 2022.

Public states that its invitation-only concierge service for clients with over $500k in assets or high trading activity continues to expand. eToro’s membership club offers similar high-end benefits, with membership surpassing 720k at the end of last year, up from 579k the previous year.

The evolution of broker app products not only shows that once-innovative startups are catching up with mature users but also reflects a K-shaped divergence in many developed economies: those with limited funds can only access basic services, while those with substantial assets—whether their wealth originated from retail stocks or not—are fiercely sought after by financial institutions, enjoying various privileges.

Public.com hosted a small dinner in New York in 2025, inviting members and content creators to discuss product updates and upcoming launches

“Our core strategy is to ensure that users who build wealth on our platform won’t leave,” said Deepak Rao, Vice President and General Manager of Robinhood Money. These companies do not want their carefully cultivated clients to drift to major Wall Street wealth managers like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, or Citibank.

Abigail Sussman, a marketing professor at Chicago Booth School of Business, said this transformation is very challenging, especially as broker apps shift toward high-end positioning, which conflicts with their original “democratizing finance” brand image.

“It’s much easier for a brand to go from high-end to mass market,” Sussman said. While high fashion brands diluting their image through lower-tier products is understandable because they already have established credibility, upgrading fast fashion retailers is much more difficult. “Going the other way—building a high-end image and status—is much harder.”

Nevertheless, these platforms are pushing forward.

A launch invitation for Robinhood’s platinum card and other premium services read: “Experience our new products from a first-class perspective, helping every generation achieve their financial goals.” The event was held at the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport in New York, introducing a $695 annual fee credit card made of 99.9% pure platinum, along with child trusts and custodial accounts.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev announced the Robinhood Platinum credit card in New York in March

London-based fintech Revolut is aggressively expanding into private banking and plans to launch more products targeting high-balance users. The company is also recruiting multilingual private bankers to serve high-net-worth clients, cross-sell products, and offer financial advice.

Public’s COO Stephen Sikes said that better data, content, and AI tools make people more willing to manage tens of millions of dollars on their own. The company has hired concierges to communicate with high-value clients about trades, build relationships, and enhance their experience.

Meanwhile, Yoni Assia, CEO of eToro, said the platform’s high-end membership program will be upgraded. Currently, the highest tier diamond members with over $250k in assets can access premium sports tickets, airport lounge privileges, and a Visa card that converts spending into stocks.

“Ultimately, I want eToro to become your family office,” Assia said.

Yoni Assia, CEO of eToro

These emerging platforms face fierce competition from traditional Wall Street institutions, which have served wealthy clients for centuries. They strengthen user loyalty through one-on-one exclusive services, private investment channels, estate planning, and more, maintaining multi-generational clients. Meanwhile, traditional banks holding trillions of dollars in client assets are optimizing their own apps, weakening the core advantages of purely digital platforms. In this industry, excellent experience and marketing are less important than trust.

Trust issues have long troubled these digital brokerages. Robinhood faced major setbacks after a surge in users during the pandemic. In 2021, the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined it $70 million for misleading clients, lack of internal controls, and other issues. Robinhood neither admitted nor denied the allegations but said it had made numerous improvements. In 2024, eToro agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regarding its unlicensed brokerage and clearing operations.

Robinhood’s new platinum card benefits are similar to popular products from American Express and JPMorgan Chase: 5% cashback on dining, $250 annual DoorDash vouchers, 10% cashback on hotels and car rentals, free Robinhood Gold membership, and $250 annual auto-driving travel subsidy.

Ted Rossman, chief analyst at Bankrate, said this premium card does not surpass competitors.

“Honestly, this card isn’t as good as the American Express Platinum or Chase Sapphire,” Rossman said. For example, DoorDash subsidies have many restrictions and are not as valuable as they seem.

However, Nick Ewen, senior editor of The Points Guy, pointed out that Robinhood’s card offers a different kind of value: “Other points don’t appreciate, but Robinhood’s design is to help you grow your investments long-term.”

This is also why 32-year-old Polish investor John Ostrowski insists on using his eToro card. He chooses to earn 4% cashback in Mercedes stocks, values its dividends, and says the card gives him a new sense of identity.

“This is a social topic,” he said. “My dad uses Amex, I use eToro.”

eToro exclusive event in Dubai for members only

However, even with the high-end halo, novelty is not enough for some users. Some services aimed at increasing stickiness backfire.

“They arranged for me to have a CPA help with taxes,” said Jason Sabshon, 42, from New York, who qualifies for Robinhood’s concierge service. The platform’s logic is that proper tax planning can boost investment returns, and handling taxes during investing can reduce tax season stress. But Sabshon isn’t convinced: “They said that person works for a company I’ve never heard of, and I don’t really trust that.”

Kai Schukowski, 39, from Dubai, has multiple brokerage accounts but says none treat top clients as well as eToro. A few months ago, he was invited to a high-end event at Dubai Opera House’s top-floor Belcanto restaurant, gathering top traders and executives, with an outdoor cocktail overlooking the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

What impressed him most was that the event was upscale and fashionable, and there were actually wealthy people present. He said, “They’re not just influencers or fame-seekers—they’re truly rich people.”