Vlad Tenev

Vladimir Tenev
Born	Vladimir Tenev 13 2, 1987
Birthplace	Varna, Bulgaria
Nationality	American, Bulgarian
Occupation	Entrepreneur, business executive
Known for	Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Robinhood
Education	Stanford University (BS) UCLA (MS)
Spouse(s)	Celina Tenev
Children	3
Awards	Forbes 30 Under 30 (Finance)

Vladimir Tenev (Template:Lang-bg; born 13 February 1987) is a Bulgarian-born American entrepreneur and business executive who co-founded, alongside Baiju Bhatt, the financial technology company Robinhood, where he serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Robinhood, which launched in 2013, introduced commission-free stock trading to mainstream retail investors and grew into a publicly traded, multibillion-dollar company. Tenev emigrated from Bulgaria to the United States at the age of five and later studied mathematics at Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles. Before Robinhood, he and Bhatt built several financial technology startups. The company became a central figure in the GameStop short squeeze of January 2021, during which Robinhood restricted trading in several volatile stocks, prompting congressional hearings at which Tenev testified. In July 2021, Robinhood went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange at a valuation of approximately $32 billion. Under Tenev's leadership, the company has expanded into cryptocurrency trading, prediction markets, and blockchain infrastructure, including the launch of a proprietary Layer 2 blockchain testnet in early 2026.

Early Life

Vladimir Tenev was born on 13 February 1987 in Varna, a major city on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria. He emigrated to the United States with his family at the age of five. Both of his parents worked in fields related to economics and finance, which provided an early exposure to the world of financial systems and institutions.

Tenev grew up in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, where he attended the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, a selective public magnet school known for its rigorous curriculum in mathematics and the sciences. The school's emphasis on quantitative disciplines shaped Tenev's academic trajectory and eventual interest in mathematical finance.

Growing up as an immigrant in the United States, Tenev later spoke about how the experience of building a new life in a different country influenced his entrepreneurial mindset. His Bulgarian heritage and his family's transition to the American economy provided him with a perspective on financial accessibility that would later inform the founding philosophy of Robinhood—the idea that financial markets should be open and accessible to ordinary people, not just established institutions and wealthy investors.

Education

Tenev enrolled at Stanford University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics. It was at Stanford that he first met Baiju Bhatt, who would become his long-term business partner and co-founder of Robinhood. The two developed a friendship rooted in shared interests in mathematics, technology, and finance.

After completing his undergraduate studies, Tenev pursued graduate work at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he earned a Master of Science degree in mathematics. During his time at UCLA, Tenev was enrolled in a doctoral program in mathematics but ultimately decided to leave the program without completing a PhD in order to pursue entrepreneurial ventures with Bhatt. The decision to abandon an academic career in favor of building technology companies marked a turning point in Tenev's professional life and set the stage for the creation of several fintech startups, culminating in Robinhood.

Career

Early Ventures

After leaving UCLA's doctoral program, Tenev and Bhatt collaborated on building financial technology companies. Their initial ventures focused on selling trading software to hedge funds and other institutional investors. Through this work, Tenev and Bhatt gained an understanding of the infrastructure underlying financial markets, including the mechanics of trade execution, clearing, and settlement. They observed that while the actual cost of executing trades had decreased substantially due to electronic trading, retail investors were still being charged significant commissions by traditional brokerages.

This observation became the foundational insight for their most consequential venture. Tenev and Bhatt recognized that the commission structure of retail brokerages was a barrier to entry for younger and less wealthy investors and that a technology-first approach could eliminate that barrier.

Founding of Robinhood

In April 2013, Tenev and Bhatt launched Robinhood, a mobile-first brokerage application designed to offer commission-free trading of stocks and exchange-traded funds. The company's name was a deliberate reference to the folk hero Robin Hood, evoking the idea of redistributing financial opportunities from the privileged few to a broader population. The app's core proposition—zero-commission trades—represented a significant departure from the business model of established brokerages such as Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and E-Trade, which at the time charged per-trade fees.

Robinhood's business model relied on alternative revenue streams, including payment for order flow (PFOF), in which market makers pay the brokerage for routing trades through them, as well as margin lending and premium subscription services. The app's clean, mobile-native interface and gamified design elements attracted a younger demographic of investors, many of whom were entering the stock market for the first time.

The company attracted significant venture capital investment and grew rapidly. By 2018, Tenev and Bhatt were reported to have reached billionaire status as Robinhood's valuation surged during successive funding rounds.

In January 2018, Robinhood announced that it would begin offering cryptocurrency trading on its platform, expanding beyond traditional equities. In December 2019, Robinhood introduced fractional share trading, allowing users to purchase portions of high-priced stocks with smaller amounts of capital. These expansions broadened the platform's appeal and cemented its position as a major force in retail investing.

GameStop Short Squeeze and Congressional Testimony

In late January 2021, Robinhood became embroiled in one of the most significant events in recent retail investing history: the GameStop short squeeze. Retail traders, many of whom coordinated on the Reddit forum WallStreetBets, drove up the price of GameStop (GME) and several other heavily shorted stocks to extraordinary levels, causing substantial losses for institutional short sellers.

On January 28, 2021, Robinhood and several other brokerages, including Interactive Brokers, restricted the purchase of GameStop and other volatile stocks, limiting users to selling their existing positions. The decision provoked immediate and intense backlash from users and commentators across the political spectrum, who accused Robinhood of siding with institutional interests over its own retail customer base.

Tenev addressed the decision publicly, stating that the trading restrictions were necessary to meet increased deposit requirements from clearinghouses and to protect both the firm and its customers. In an interview with CNBC, Tenev explained the rationale behind the restrictions, emphasizing the operational pressures on the brokerage's capital and clearing infrastructure.

On February 18, 2021, Tenev was called to testify before the United States House Committee on Financial Services, alongside GameStop investor Keith Gill (known as "Roaring Kitty"), hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin of Citadel LLC, and Gabe Plotkin of Melvin Capital. During the hearing, Tenev apologized to customers for the trading restrictions and stated that Robinhood would work to prevent similar disruptions in the future. The hearing was widely covered in national media and represented one of the most high-profile interactions between Congress and the fintech industry.

As part of the federal investigation into the events surrounding the GameStop trading restrictions, federal authorities executed a search warrant and seized Tenev's cell phone. The seizure was disclosed in Robinhood's IPO filing documents.

Robinhood IPO

On July 28, 2021, Robinhood went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol HOOD, with shares priced at $38, giving the company an initial valuation of approximately $32 billion. The IPO was one of the most anticipated public offerings of 2021, given the company's central role in the retail trading boom and the controversy surrounding the GameStop episode. Robinhood allocated a significant portion of its IPO shares to its own users through its platform, an unusual move for a major public offering.

The stock's performance in the months following the IPO was volatile, reflecting broader market conditions as well as investor uncertainty about the company's revenue model and regulatory outlook.

Expansion and Cryptocurrency Initiatives

Under Tenev's leadership, Robinhood continued to expand its product offerings in the years following its IPO. The company deepened its involvement in cryptocurrency, adding support for additional digital assets and pursuing initiatives in blockchain technology.

In November 2025, The Wall Street Journal profiled Tenev in a feature describing how the brokerage was making increasingly exotic investment products available to ordinary retail investors, with Tenev positioned as a central figure in the growing trend of aggressive retail trading.

In January 2026, Tenev expressed frustration with what he described as "legislative gridlock" on cryptocurrency regulation in the United States, urging American policymakers to take a leading role in establishing clear policy frameworks for digital assets.

Later that month, Tenev appeared on CNBC's Halftime Report to discuss the launch of "Trump Accounts" on the Robinhood platform, as well as the company's broader strategic direction.

In February 2026, Robinhood launched a public testnet for its own Layer 2 blockchain, built on top of the Ethereum network. In the testnet's first week, the network recorded four million transactions, a figure Tenev highlighted publicly as evidence of strong developer and user interest. The development represented a notable expansion for a company that had originated as a brokerage app into the realm of blockchain infrastructure development.

Prediction Markets

By early 2026, Robinhood had also entered the prediction markets business. Tenev publicly expressed optimism about the segment's growth potential, citing upcoming major sporting events such as the Winter Olympics and the FIFA World Cup as catalysts for user engagement in prediction market products. The entry into prediction markets represented another diversification of Robinhood's product portfolio beyond traditional equity and cryptocurrency trading.

Personal Life

Tenev is married to Celina Tenev. The couple has three children. Tenev resides in the United States. He holds American citizenship, having immigrated from Bulgaria as a child.

Tenev has given interviews reflecting on the personal toll of leading Robinhood through multiple crises, including the GameStop episode and the company's subsequent regulatory and public relations challenges. In a 2026 appearance on Sequoia Capital's podcast, he discussed the experience of leading through periods of intense public scrutiny and operational pressure.

In a separate Sequoia Capital podcast appearance in October 2025, Tenev discussed how Robinhood had sought to democratize access to investing and reflected on the challenges the company faced, including the GameStop controversy and the impact of rising interest rates on its business.

Recognition

In 2016, Tenev was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Finance category, recognizing his role in co-founding Robinhood and its impact on the brokerage industry.

In 2018, Bloomberg reported that Tenev and co-founder Bhatt had each become billionaires as Robinhood's valuation increased through successive private funding rounds, placing them among the youngest self-made billionaires in the technology industry at that time.

Tenev's profile on Forbes has tracked his net worth as a function of his stake in Robinhood, with fluctuations corresponding to the company's valuation changes following its IPO and subsequent stock price movements.

The 2021 congressional hearing on GameStop trading, at which Tenev was a key witness, brought him significant public attention and made him one of the most recognizable figures in American fintech. Media coverage of the event, including reporting by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NBC News, and CNBC, placed Tenev at the center of a national debate about retail investing, market structure, and the responsibilities of brokerage platforms to their users.

Legacy

Robinhood's introduction of commission-free trading in 2013 under Tenev and Bhatt's leadership catalyzed a transformation of the American brokerage industry. By the end of the 2010s, major incumbent brokerages—including Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and E-Trade—had eliminated their own trading commissions, a shift that was directly attributed in part to the competitive pressure created by Robinhood's model. The company's mobile-first approach and simplified user interface also influenced how established financial institutions designed and marketed their own digital products.

The GameStop episode of January 2021 brought unprecedented attention to the dynamics of retail trading and the role of platforms such as Robinhood in enabling mass participation in financial markets. The events prompted legislative and regulatory discussions about payment for order flow, clearinghouse deposit requirements, and the responsibilities of brokerages in volatile market conditions. Tenev's testimony before Congress became a significant moment in the broader conversation about fintech regulation.

By expanding into cryptocurrency trading, fractional shares, prediction markets, and blockchain infrastructure, Tenev has positioned Robinhood as a multi-product financial technology platform rather than a single-purpose brokerage. The company's development of its own Layer 2 blockchain in 2026 marked a further evolution, suggesting an ambition to become an infrastructure provider in the digital asset space as well as a consumer-facing platform.

Tenev's career trajectory—from Bulgarian immigrant to Stanford-educated mathematician to fintech CEO—has made him a frequently cited example in discussions about immigrant entrepreneurship in the American technology sector.