Robinhood’s on-chain trading surge lifts Arbitrum as ARB token posts major gains

Robinhood’s recently launched blockchain is seeing rapid early adoption, with a spike in memecoin trading activity boosting network usage and generating potential revenue benefits for the wider Arbitrum ecosystem.

The brokerage’s new blockchain platform has gained momentum quickly, with Arbitrum benefiting from its role as the underlying technology provider. The network is built using Arbitrum’s infrastructure, linking Robinhood’s expansion directly to increased activity across the Ethereum-based ecosystem.

Arbitrum’s ARB token climbed 19% over the past 24 hours, ranking as the best-performing cryptocurrency among the top 100 digital assets, according to CoinDesk data. Bitcoin rose 1.5% to trade above $63,000, while ether gained 0.5% during a relatively stable market session.

The rally followed a sharp increase in activity on Robinhood Chain, which became publicly available a week earlier. According to blockchain data from Entropy Advisors, the network processed more than $568 million in daily trading volume on Wednesday and recorded over $350 million in volume on Thursday.

The early surge was largely fueled by memecoin speculation, while stablecoin liquidity expanded quickly, with balances on the chain climbing above $260 million within its first week.

The growth is also creating a direct revenue opportunity for Arbitrum. Under the terms of the agreement, 10% of Robinhood Chain’s net protocol revenue will be allocated back to the Arbitrum ecosystem, with the funds shared between the DAO treasury and the Developer Guild.

Robinhood pushes deeper into crypto and tokenization

Robinhood introduced the blockchain during its London event last week, positioning it as a key part of the company’s broader digital asset strategy.

The brokerage announced plans to expand tokenized U.S. stock access to customers in more than 120 countries, launched a DeFi savings vault offering yield through lending platform Morpho, and highlighted future ambitions in AI-powered trading and additional financial products.

The early results have exceeded some forecasts. FalconX previously estimated that Robinhood Chain could generate around $1.1 million in transaction fees during its first six months.

Brendan Ma, head of investment strategies at the Arbitrum Foundation, said the network’s current activity suggests a much stronger revenue trajectory. Based on recent volumes, he estimated Robinhood Chain is already running at an annualized revenue pace of more than $12.5 million, while noting that large-scale tokenized real-world asset (RWA) adoption has not yet arrived.

Although the initial trading frenzy may eventually cool, continued growth in blockchain activity could become a meaningful long-term revenue source for Robinhood. FalconX expects transaction revenue could potentially rise to $60 million annually by 2030 as users expand beyond tokenized stocks and move into DeFi and other on-chain applications.