by Coinstrooper Crypto Articles
Quick Take
  • Robinhood Chain’s explosive first two weeks have revived a familiar question.
  • Is Ethereum dead, or did a brokerage serving nearly 28 million customers just deliver the strongest argument yet that it is quietly winning?
  • The layer-2 launched on July 1, built with Arbitrum technology and using ether (ETH) as its native gas token.
  • Ethereum finalizes its transactions and stores its records, yet analysts disagree sharply over who captures the value.

What Happened

The layer-2 launched on July 1, built with Arbitrum technology and using ether (ETH) as its native gas token. Ethereum finalizes its transactions and stores its records, yet analysts disagree sharply over who captures the value.

The chain also caps a deliberate two-step strategy. Robinhood launched its first-generation Stock Tokens on Arbitrum One in June 2025, tested demand on shared infrastructure for a year, then graduated to its own chain.

Notably, neither firm launched a proprietary gas token. ETH already pays for layer-1 services, carries deep liquidity, and avoids the legal and distribution questions a new token would raise.

In the same tone, trader Borovik argued the launch is bullish because anyone launching an L2 still needs ETH for gas.

Lorenzo Valente, a researcher at Ark Invest, published the numbers behind the discomfort in a post on X (Twitter).

“Since inception, Robinhood Chain has grossed ~$816K in revenue. Arbitrum, the middleware provider, takes 10%: ~$80K. Arbitrum then pays Ethereum for settlement: $1,538,” noted Lorenzo Valente, researcher at Ark Invest.

Ethereum, by contrast, charges no such fee. Its Dencun upgrade in March 2024 deliberately cut the cost layer-2s pay to post data, so the $1,538 bill is Ethereum’s own pricing working as designed.

Market Context

The commercial logic mirrors Coinbase’s decision to build Base as an Ethereum layer-2 in 2023. Both firms wanted control, custom features, and predictable economics without bootstrapping a new validator set, bridge, and liquidity base from scratch.

Early traction supports the choice. Within two weeks, the network passed Ethereum in volume across decentralized exchanges (DEX), ranking third overall at roughly $811 million daily.

Meanwhile, World’s prediction market teased leaving Solana to redeploy on Robinhood Chain. While it remains unclear whether they moved, the prediction market acknowledges the network has motion.

Analyst Miles Deutscher, meanwhile, said he is already deploying capital into projects on the new chain.

“I’m personally throwing a few darts and DCAing into some top projects on the Robinhood chain (not necessarily high-conviction, but want to capture upside if this momentum continues),” Deutscher stated.

By his math, Robinhood keeps 89% of gross revenue, Arbitrum takes 10%, and Ethereum collects 0.15%. Valente argues a healthier split would route around 15% to Ethereum, because the deal was won on merit but priced poorly.

Why It Matters

Robinhood Chain’s explosive first two weeks have revived a familiar question. Is Ethereum dead, or did a brokerage serving nearly 28 million customers just deliver the strongest argument yet that it is quietly winning?

Why Robinhood Chain Strengthens the Ethereum Bull Case

Details

Travis Kling, founder of Ikigai Asset Management, asked this week whether real companies have any interest in existing L1s and L2s. He pointed to Robinhood, SWIFT, Stripe, and Wall Street’s Canton as evidence they prefer their own blockchains.

However, Robinhood’s architecture cuts against that premise. Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum layer-2, a separate network that inherits Ethereum’s security.

Final settlement happens on Ethereum, meaning the main network holds the definitive record of its transactions. Its official bridge needs no third-party validators, and ETH is the native gas token.

In other words, Robinhood did not reject Ethereum. It rejected sharing a chain with other projects, then chose Ethereum as the parent network for its own.

Its public testnet processed more than 200 million transactions before mainnet, per the Arbitrum Foundation.

The product case is concrete. Robinhood says Stock Tokens now trade 24/7 through its wallet in more than 120 countries, with a dedicated Uniswap venue live from day one. The Arbitrum Foundation puts the chain’s latency at 100 milliseconds. Those specifications required a dedicated chain, but never a new layer-1.

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The Bear Case Says Ethereum Sells Security Too Cheap

The split is not an accident of code. Arbitrum’s Expansion Program licence charges chains on its stack 10% of net revenue, with 8% routed to the ArbitrumDAO treasury and 2% to its developer guild.