Robinhood Blockchain Success Leaves Ethereum in the Cold

Robinhood's new blockchain, launched on July 1 via Arbitrum's tech stack, has been a rapid success. The chain already has $257.4 million in total value locked (TVL) and cleared $4.5 billion of decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume in the seven-day period ending on July 20. However, this achievement is bearish for Ethereum, as the money doesn't flow to the base chain.

The Arbitrum-based chain routes 10% of its net protocol revenue back to Arbitrum's network in a split of 8% to native token holders and 2% to ecosystem developers, with Robinhood keeping 90%. This means that Ethereum gets only 0.15% of the cumulative chain fees reported on Robinhood Chain through July 13.

The recent Fusaka upgrade to Ethereum added a fee floor to make activity on Layer-2 chains pay Ether holders more. However, this change is unlikely to affect the chain's economics, as the fee floor is extremely low at Robinhood Chain.