FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that US neobroker Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) has hired experienced crypto and blockchain executive Gaëtan Thabot, as Crypto Partnerships Director.

Gaëtan Thabot joins Robinhood after spending the past year as VP of Sales and Partnerships at Reown and VP Business Development of related crypto payments company WalletConnect. He previously spent three years as Global Head of Protocols at institutional Web3 gateway company Blockdaemon. Gaëtan has also worked at Interstellar (later Velo Labs), Positive Finance, and Capgemini. He is also a member of the Crypto Valley Association.

HOOD stock has taken a big hit in recent days, mainly on the heels of an underperforming crypto trading business. Robinhood crypto Revenues were $221 million in Q4 2025, down by 18% from $268 million in Q3.

Gaëtan posted the following note on social media regarding his new role at Robinhood.

Personal update: I joined the Robinhood Crypto team.

8 years ago I started learning about blockchain.

I had recently moved from Paris to San Francisco. I was a consultant working for banks. Working on “disruptive technologies” (think IoT, cloud, or “blockchain”…)

I discovered Bitcoin, Ethereum, the Ethereum DAO’s hack, the hard fork (I doubled $50 on that! IYKYK), Ripple, Stellar, etc.

A few months later, I bought my first (fraction of a) bitcoin with the Robinhood app.

BTC was at $4,199.  I sold everything 10 months later, thinking I had doubled and that it couldn’t get better than that! 🙂

At the time, allowing me to buy “internet” money was a bold proposition.

Yet the experience felt great. It was easy, intuitive, informative, and kinda fun. It took me 2 minutes to connect my bank account (thank you Plaid), transfer funds, browse a few cryptos, and submit a buy order.

Fast forward to 2026, Robinhood is a public company, services over 27M users with a much wider set of products (credit card, retirement, joint accounts, predictive markets, early access to IPOs, private markets (soon!), etc.). All seemingly guided by the same UX principles.

I’m in my 7th year of working in crypto and I’m excited to join the team that gave me the ability to buy my first fraction of bitcoin, and just launched Robinhood Chain testnet (see announcement)

I look forward to doing my part as Director of Crypto Partnerships to bring the same experience to millions alongside the Robinhood Crypto team. Johann Kerbrat, Seong Seog Lee, Roger Younan, Nicola White, Will McCormick and team.

Let’s go!