EXCLUSIVE: Robinhood CFO Says Gold Membership Built On Costco, Amazon Prime, Uber Playbook

• Robinhood CFO Shiv Verma in an exclusive interview with Stocktwits described the company’s GOLD membership as a loyalty product rather than a traditional subscription, aimed at increasing engagement and retention.
• Verma added that Robinhood will continue to expand the Gold ecosystem with new features, including a Platinum card currently in development.
• He said that Gold members are significantly more engaged, with higher deposit activity, trading frequency, and product adoption.

Robinhood Markets (HOOD) is taking cues from some of the largest consumer subscription platforms in the world as it builds out its Gold membership offering, with Chief Financial Officer Shiv Verma pointing to models used by Costco (COST), Amazon Prime (AMZN), Uber (UBER), Spotify (SPOT), and DoorDash (DASH).

In an exclusive interview with Stocktwits, Verma stated the company studied how those platforms built large-scale subscription ecosystems and is applying similar principles to Gold.

“We look to Costco. How can you provide great value for customers at a low fee? We also look to Amazon Prime,” Verma told Stocktwits’ Michele Steele.  “Even if you look at Spotify or Uber or DoorDash, they've shown you can have tens of millions of people on a subscription product if you build it well.”

He added that the success of their subscription models was the reason for Robinhood’s continued investment in their Gold product. “You should expect that this year and in future years, we're going to add more and more features to it as well,” said Verma.

HOOD’s stock edged 0.6% higher in pre-market trade on Thursday after a drop of over 13% in the previous session. Retail sentiment around the company trended in ‘extremely bullish’ territory over the past day, accompanied by chatter at ‘extremely high’ levels. 

Wednesday’s drop wiped out HOOD’s April gains and was the stock’s biggest single-day fall in over a year, according to Koyfin data. 

Robinhood’s Gold Membership Growth Accelerates

Robinhood’s Q1 2026 filings show Gold subscribers at a record 4.34 million, up 36% year-over-year and up 170,000 sequentially. The attach rate among funded customers climbed to 15.8%, nearly doubling from early 2024 levels. Around 40% of new customers are now joining Gold at sign-up. “I think of it less as a subscription product and more akin to a loyalty product,” Verma said.

He told Stocktwits that Gold subscribers hold approximately five times more assets under custody than the average funded customer. The CFO also said that they deposit at 1.2 times the average rate and adopt retirement accounts at 3.3 times the average rate, making them the primary customer cohort that the company wants to grow. 

“Gold customers tend to deposit more — usually about two times more. They tend to trade more. They tend to adopt more of our products. That’s why you see a better margin profile, stronger ARPU, stronger net deposits.”  — Shiv Verma, CFO, Robinhoo

Costco-Style Pricing Strategy

Robinhood’s pricing strategy draws directly from Costco’s membership model. The goal is not to maximize revenue from the fee itself but to create behavioral commitment.

At $5 per month, Gold is priced deliberately low relative to its benefits. Verma noted that the 3% IRA match alone can outweigh the subscription cost for many users. Additional features, including 3% cash back through the Gold Credit Card and no foreign transaction fees, further strengthen the value proposition.

Amazon Prime Playbook Expands Product Bundle

Robinhood is also applying a broader “bundle” strategy similar to Amazon Prime, where the value of membership increases as more services are added. Gold includes a range of benefits, including a 3% IRA match, a 3.35% annual percentage yield on uninvested cash, reduced commissions on futures trading, access to the Gold Credit Card, mortgage rate discounts through Sage, and professional research tools.

“Anything you do on Robinhood, if you’re a Gold member, should be better,” Verma said. “And as we roll out new features, we’re going to keep putting more and more in there.”

The company is continuing to expand the offering. The Robinhood Gold Card has surpassed 800,000 funded users and $15 billion in annualized purchase volume. Verma said the company expects to exceed one million cardholders by the end of 2026.

Read also: EXCLUSIVE: Robinhood CFO Addresses HOOD Stock’s 14% Selloff — Says Market Is Misreading Q1 Earnings Miss

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