Whole Share

The original rule

Robinhood started with whole shares.

When the app opened, an order was one share or more. You could not buy a slice of a stock, and that is where the platform took off. Fractional trading only arrived in December 2019. Whole Share brings the first rule to Robinhood Chain: the smallest thing you can buy is one.

  1. 2013

    Robinhood is founded.

  2. 2015

    The app opens. Orders are whole shares only.

  3. Dec 2019

    Fractional shares arrive.

  4. Now

    Whole Share keeps the first rule, on Robinhood Chain.

Form S-1Robinhood Markets, Inc.

As we have built out our offerings, we have also added fractional shares, recurring investments and IPO Access to help our customers diversify their investments regardless of their portfolio size:

Fractional shares. Fractional share trading allows customers to invest in fractions of a share of stock, rather than requiring them to buy and sell whole shares. We have seen rapid adoption of this offering and, in the first quarter of 2021 alone, over 40% of customer equity trades by number were fractional trades. This service enables customers to build a diversified portfolio regardless of their budget and removes a barrier to investing in higher-priced stocks, thereby providing access to a much greater selection of equities with as little as $1. From our launch of fractional shares in 2019 to March 31, 2021, approximately 11 million customers have placed a fractional trade on Robinhood.

Registration statement, 2021. Prospectus summary.

Whole shares only

No fractions. Not then, not now.

Every order fills in whole shares. Ask for 2.86 and you get 2. Ask for less than one and nothing fills. Wallets only ever hold whole shares, and the fraction a sell leaves behind is burned.

  • Market buy

    0.5 WHOLE

    Rejected

    Not a whole share

  • Market buy

    0.01 WHOLE

    Rejected

    Not a whole share

  • Market buy

    1 WHOLE

    Filled

    1 share

  • Market buy

    100 WHOLE

    Filled

    100 shares

Contract

Enforced in the token.

Every transfer runs through this check, in the token itself, not in a setting anyone can change. A pool or router can carry a fraction through a trade. A wallet never holds one.

Contract
0x31CAe9a64E16b2bC3190e971FdCBEbD5a928E71c
Chain
Robinhood Chain
Market
Uniswap v4
Shares at launch
5,000
View on Blockscout
error WholeCoinsOnly(uint256 amount);// the rule has a name
if (fromWallet && toWallet) revert WholeCoinsOnly(value);// person to person: whole coins only
super._update(from, to, value - dust);// a buy pays the wallet whole coins
super._update(from, address(0), dust);// the fraction is burned