# Vlad Tenev

> Vlad Tenev is the Bulgarian-American co-founder and CEO of Robinhood Markets, the company that forced Wall Street to abolish trading commissions and put a brokerage in every pocket. Born in Varna, Bulgaria, and raised in Virginia after emigrating at age 5, Tenev studied mathematics at Stanford and UCLA before dropping his PhD to build trading software startups. In 2013, he and Baiju Bhatt launched Robinhood to give ordinary people the same tools as professional traders - for free. After navigating the GameStop firestorm, congressional testimony, a bruising post-IPO collapse, and two rounds of layoffs, Tenev rebuilt Robinhood into a diversified financial platform now worth nearly $100 billion and included in the S&P 500. He also co-founded Harmonic, an AI startup pursuing mathematical superintelligence, which reached a $1.45 billion valuation in 2025 after its AI model won a Gold Medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad.

- **Role:** Co-founder, Chairman & CEO at Robinhood Markets
- **Organizations:** Robinhood Markets, Harmonic AI
- **From:** Varna, Bulgaria
- **Nationality:** Bulgarian-American
- **Education:** High School Diploma, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Bachelor of Science, Mathematics, Stanford University, Master of Arts, Mathematics (left PhD program), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
- **Known for:** Co-founded Robinhood, forcing the entire brokerage industry to adopt zero-commission trading by 2019, Grew Robinhood to 24+ million funded accounts and a market cap approaching $100 billion, Led Robinhood's addition to the S&P 500 in September 2025

## Career timeline

- **1992** — Emigrated from Varna, Bulgaria to the United States at age 5, reuniting with parents at JFK airport
- **2009** — Graduated Stanford with BS in Mathematics; enrolled in UCLA PhD program
- **2010** — Left UCLA PhD program; co-founded Celeris, a high-frequency trading software startup, with Baiju Bhatt
- **2011** — Co-founded Chronos Research, algorithmic trading software sold to banks and hedge funds
- **2013** — Co-founded Robinhood with Baiju Bhatt; raised $3M seed round; garnered 1M waitlist signups after viral Hacker News post
- **2014** — Robinhood app launched publicly; raised $13M Series A; grew to 500,000+ users
- **2015** — Robinhood processed over $1 billion in transactions
- **2016** — Named Forbes 30 Under 30; Robinhood raised $110M Series C at $1.3B valuation
- **2018** — Robinhood surpassed E*TRADE in users (4M+); valued at $5.6B; Tenev became a billionaire
- **2019** — Keynote speaker at UCLA Mathematics Commencement; Schwab, Fidelity and TD Ameritrade all dropped trading commissions, following Robinhood's lead
- **2020** — Became sole CEO (Bhatt took Chairman role); Robinhood revenue tripled to ~$1B
- **2021-01** — GameStop short squeeze - Robinhood restricted trading amid chaos, triggering massive user backlash and congressional scrutiny
- **2021-02** — Testified before U.S. House Committee on Financial Services for 5+ hours on GameStop trading halt
- **2021-07** — Led Robinhood NASDAQ IPO at $38/share; $32B valuation
- **2022** — Navigated post-IPO collapse (stock fell 80%+); conducted two rounds of layoffs; restructured Robinhood for profitability
- **2023** — Co-founded Harmonic with Tudor Achim, pursuing mathematical AI superintelligence
- **2024** — Robinhood acquired Bitstamp for $200M; company returned to sustained profitability; Harmonic raised $75M Series A
- **2025-07** — Announced Robinhood Chain (Layer 2 blockchain); Harmonic raised $100M Series B; Harmonic's 'Aristotle' AI won Gold Medal at International Mathematical Olympiad
- **2025-09** — Robinhood added to S&P 500; stock up 384% year-over-year; named Fortune 100 Most Powerful People #73
- **2025-11** — Harmonic raised $120M Series C at $1.45B valuation
- **2026-01** — Robinhood closed 90% acquisition of MIAXdx exchange; expanded to Singapore and Indonesia
- **2026-04** — Declared 'tokenization supercycle' on Q1 2026 earnings call; Robinhood selected alongside BNY Mellon to power US Treasury 'Trump Accounts'

## Achievements

- Co-founded Robinhood, forcing the entire brokerage industry to adopt zero-commission trading by 2019
- Grew Robinhood to 24+ million funded accounts and a market cap approaching $100 billion
- Led Robinhood's addition to the S&P 500 in September 2025
- Survived and rebuilt after the GameStop crisis, congressional testimony, and 80% post-IPO stock collapse
- Co-founded Harmonic AI (2023), which reached $1.45B valuation within two years
- Harmonic's AI model 'Aristotle' won Gold Medal at the 2025 International Mathematical Olympiad
- Forbes 30 Under 30 (2016); Forbes 30 Under 30 Hall of Fame (2022)
- Fortune 100 Most Powerful People in Business #73 (2025, new entry)
- CoinDesk Most Influential in Crypto (2025)
- Became a billionaire at approximately age 31
- Net worth of approximately $4.8-6.1 billion as of 2026

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Declared 'tokenization supercycle' on Q1 2026 earnings call; Robinhood selected to power US Treasury Trump Accounts for newborns
- **2026-03** — Spoke at Bloomberg on tokenization and prediction markets; Robinhood Ventures gave retail access to private companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX
- **2026-01** — Completed 90% acquisition of MIAXdx exchange; received MAS approval for Singapore expansion
- **2025-11** — Harmonic AI raised $120M Series C at $1.45B valuation, led by Ribbit Capital
- **2025-09** — Robinhood added to S&P 500; stock up 384% YoY; named Fortune 100 Most Powerful People #73
- **2025-07** — Announced Robinhood Chain (Layer 2 blockchain); Harmonic's AI 'Aristotle' won Gold Medal at International Mathematical Olympiad

## Links

- Website: https://www.vladimitenev.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vlad-tenev-7037591b
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/vladtenev

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/vlad-tenev
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-30