Ethereum Earns Less Than Robinhood Chain in First Quarter
ARK Invest sees Robinhood Chain generating more network revenue than Ethereum in its debut quarter. The new chain uses ETH as gas, while Ethereum is losing ground in DeFi and tokenization.
Key Takeaways
- Robinhood Chain generated about $51 million (€45.4 million) in network revenue in its first quarter, more than Ethereum’s roughly $41 million (€36.5 million).
- Ethereum’s network revenue fell by about 35% in the third quarter compared with the second quarter.
- Robinhood Chain processed about $65 billion (€57.9 billion) in DEX volume, making it the fourth-largest chain according to ARK Invest.
Robinhood Chain generated about $51 million (€45.4 million) in network revenue in its first quarter, more than Ethereum in the same period. According to ARK Invest, Ethereum brought in about $41 million (€36.5 million), while the network’s revenue fell by about 35% in the third quarter compared with the second quarter.
Ethereum Loses Ground
ARK Invest reported the figures in its DeFi Quarterly for the third quarter of 2026. It shows that total network revenue in the report rose by about 24% from the second quarter to roughly $349 million (€311 million). Even so, that total was still about 47% below the level from a year earlier.
According to ARK, this was the first quarter of growth in five quarters. The increase was tied to Solana’s recovery and the launch of Robinhood Chain. Ethereum also lost ground in tokenization. On public blockchains, the share of tokenized real-world assets fell from about 50% at the end of June to 44%, although Ethereum remained the largest host with about $16.7 billion (€14.9 billion). That makes JPMorgan’s recent move to bring JPM Coin to Ethereum especially relevant for anyone following the race for institutional tokenization.
Robinhood Chain Gets Its First Test
Robinhood launched the chain’s public mainnet on July 1, about five months after the testnet went live in February. The chain settles transactions on Ethereum and uses ETH as the gas token, so Ethereum still gets a share of the fees the network generates.
In its debut quarter, Robinhood Chain processed about $65 billion (€57.9 billion) in DEX volume. That made it the fourth-largest chain by DEX volume in ARK’s data. Tokenized stocks accounted for about $13.7 billion (€12.2 billion) of that trading. Only BNB Chain was higher, at about $16.5 billion (€14.7 billion).
Why This Matters for Investors
For investors, this shows that new networks can quickly take on a major role in DeFi activity, while established names like Ethereum can see lower revenue at the same time. The fact that Robinhood Chain settles on Ethereum makes the shift even more relevant for anyone watching fee revenue and network usage. ARK did note, though, that higher gas on Robinhood Chain probably will not keep the unusually high fees caused by congestion.
Robinhood shareholders will get more clarity on October 27, when the company reports third-quarter results. Those numbers will cover the chain’s first full quarter. Robinhood previously said in a SEC filing that Robinhood Chain’s revenue depends heavily on adoption and developer activity on the network. At the time of publication, the stock was trading around $101.9 (€91), about 11.5% lower than at the start of 2026.
