Robinhood Chain Distributes $42 Million in ETH Amid Revenue Surge

Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum L2 developed by Robinhood Markets, has distributed approximately 16,848 ETH to two revenue distribution contracts between July 20 and September 7. According to on-chain analysis platform Arkham, this amount is equivalent to around 6% of Robinhood's Q2 net income.

The Robinhood Chain uses Arbitrum technology as its foundation and operates as a layer-2 solution for Ethereum payments. The chain allows users to settle transactions in ETH, with some of the transaction fees being sent to the chain's revenue collection contracts in ETH.

Of the 16,848 ETH distributed, approximately 90% (15,163 ETH) went to a specific address, while around 10% (1,685 ETH) was sent to an Arbitrum contract. The revenue distribution contract 'RewardDistributor' has set a ratio of 9,000:1,000 for the two recipients, which matches the actual distribution.

It's worth noting that the identity of the address receiving 90% of the funds is unknown, as it cannot be verified on Arkham or Robinhood Chain's block explorer. The 10% distributed to Arbitrum aligns with the 'Arbitrum Expansion Program' (AEP) framework, which allows protocols built on top of Arbitrum to redistribute their revenue to the ecosystem.

The AEP defines protocol revenue as total revenue minus base chain settlement fees and data availability costs. For Robinhood Chain, this means that its protocol revenue is 10% of its net income, with the remaining 90% going to the specific address.