Robinhood Chain Sees Transactions Drop 42%
The slowdown is hitting Robinhood’s business model, while deposits and stablecoin reserves are holding up. The chain also faces technical risks because of its single sequencer.
Key Takeaways
- Robinhood Chain processed an average of 6.2 million daily transactions between October 2 and 8, 42% less than in mid-September.
- Fewer transactions are weighing on the business model, because Robinhood keeps about nine-tenths of the network fees itself.
- Deposits rose slightly to $1.04 billion, while Robinhood will keep paying the network fees through December 31.
Robinhood Chain is having a tougher time. Not only have fees already collapsed, but usage itself is now falling too. Between October 2 and 8, the number of daily transactions dropped to an average of 6.2 million, 42% less than in mid-September. Meanwhile, Robinhood is still paying network fees in its wallet app on swaps above 50 cents.
Less Trading on the Chain
According to calculations based on growthepie data, the average number of transactions in the week of October 2 through 8 was 20% lower than a week earlier. Robinhood launched the chain in July to trade, borrow, and lend tokens through apps connected to Ethereum. The plan is to later add 24-hour trading in tokens tied to stocks and funds as well.
The slowdown directly affects the business model. Every transaction pays a network fee, and the apps on top of it also charge their own fees for trades and loans. According to a Bernstein note from last month, Robinhood keeps about nine-tenths of the network fees itself, so fewer transactions also mean less income from the chain.
Balances Are Holding Up
What stands out is that users are not pulling their money out en masse. Deposits in the lending and trading apps rose about 2% over the past week to $1.04 billion (€0.9 billion), while the supply of stablecoins climbed to around $1.10 billion (€1 billion). That suggests the same capital is mostly just being moved less often.
Broader trading activity also slowed. Spot exchanges processed $7.45 billion (€6.6 billion) in the week through October 8, down from $9.46 billion (€8.4 billion) a week earlier. Uniswap accounted for about 77% of that. At the same time, volume in perpetual futures actually rose 26% to about $7.35 billion (€6.6 billion), showing that not all trading cooled off in the same way.
Reliability Remains a Concern
For European crypto watchers, the big takeaway is that a young chain can struggle not just with lower activity, but also with technical risks. Robinhood Chain was down for more than 14 minutes on September 4 because of a disruption in block production, and the chain relies on a single sequencer to order transactions. That kind of setup can put reliability under pressure if something goes wrong.
Robinhood and its partners are trying to keep activity up in the meantime. Trading platform Arcus started handing out extra rewards from October 1 for stock-token swaps in Robinhood Wallet, and Robinhood extended the period during which it pays the network fees through December 31. That gives the chain a few more months to try to boost activity again before users have to cover the costs themselves.
