Robinhood's fourth-quarter earnings blew past Wall Street estimates, and its shares jumped in reaction. The brokerage firm reported diluted earnings per share of $1.01 compared with analyst forecasts of 42 cents, according to FactSet. For the fourth quarter of 2023, Robinhood reported earnings per share of three cents.

Quarterly revenue hit $1.01 billion, up 115% year over year. Analysts had expected $934 million in revenue for the latest quarter.

"We did over $1 billion in revenue for the first time," CEO Vlad Tenev said in an earnings call. "It capped off a record-breaking year for the company."

Shares of Robinhood surged 16% in premarket trading Thursday following the earnings report.

A surge in investor activity gave the brokerage firm a big lift during the quarter. Robinhood isn't standing still, though. This year it is planning to roll out more products and services, including an expanded cryptocurrency offering, wealth management, and an event contracts platform that could allow customers to place trades based the outcome of events such as elections.

"This is going to be a big and intense year for us," Tenev said. "I think the team is energized for what's ahead and delivering more for our customers."

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company reported record net income of $916 million and said it benefited from a $369 million deferred tax benefit (equivalent to 41 cents of diluted EPS).

Investor surge. An upswing in fourth-quarter investor activity lifted Robinhood's earnings as customers piled into equity markets and cryptocurrencies. Transaction-based revenue soared more than 200% year over year to $672 million. Cryptocurrency revenue was up more than 700%, options revenue increased 83%, and equities revenue rose 144%.

Other brokerage firms, such as Charles Schwab and Interactive Brokers, also reported increases in investor activity.

Investors weren't just trading, though; they were also putting more money into their accounts. Robinhood's assets under custody increased 88% year over year to $193 billion and was boosted in part by a record $16 billion in net deposits.

"Hard not to call it a tremendous crypto quarter, but if you look at options and equities, which were up significantly, it was really strength across the board," CFO Jason Warnick said on a call with reporters. "There's reasons to believe this positive backdrop will continue."

The company has also offered matching bonuses to incentivize customers to transfer accounts to Robinhood. Customers are typically required to keep assets at the company for a set period to get the bonus.

Gold. Subscribers to the company's Gold service, which provides customers with discounts and additional benefits, reached a record 2.6 million for the quarter. Executives say Gold subscribers are much more likely to transfer assets to Robinhood and use more of the company's services.

The company also said it is making progress in expanding the breadth of services and products it offers customers. For instance, it noted it launched a new platform for active traders in October. Robinhood began offering options trading to its customers in the U.K. earlier this week. And in the first half of this year, it expects to close two acquisitions: cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp and custodian TradePMR.

The latter acquisition will advance Robinhood's plans to expand into wealth management. The company recently filed documents with the SEC detailing its forthcoming robo-advisor offering.

"We see advisory as an enormous opportunity and will tackle it very aggressively," Tenev said.

He also talked up plans to offer a "comprehensive event contract platform." Event contracts essentially allow investors to bet on the outcome of an event. Last year, Robinhood offered event contracts for the presidential election, and investors traded millions of contracts in the week leading up to election day, according to the company. Earlier this month, Robinhood paused a Super Bowl event contract following what it said was a formal request from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to "not permit customers to access" sports event contracts. On the earnings, Tenev was optimistic about the company's ability to be a "front and center in leading the way" for customers, pointing to how election contracts were a hit with customers.

"Prediction markets are the future," he said. "Not just as an active trading asset but for news and information. Robinhood will be right there leading the way. We will continue to innovate. You saw this last year with the presidential election. We were one of the few platforms to offer that. We had half a billion contracts traded in the week before the election. So you should expect a comprehensive platform that offers access to prediction markets. As with any new innovative asset class, we are pushing the boundaries here, and there is not regulatory clarity across everything. But we will be a leader here, and you should expect us to push for regulatory clarity."

Robinhood executives were also upbeat about the possibilities for crypto, noting the evolving regulatory environment. Tenev said Robinhood has the technological capabilities and know-how to quickly adapt as regulators clarify rules around digital assets and tokenization.