Robinhood Chain Launchpad Model Exploited for $18M

A recent analysis by pseudonymous on-chain analyst Wazz has uncovered a large-scale operation that exploited Robinhood Chain's launchpad model. The investigation found that 53 token launches were linked to a single operation, which extracted at least $18.43 million between July and September.

The analysis traced 45 of the 53 launches through money flows, revealing that proceeds from one token were used to fund the next. In one example, DRAFT's 98 wallets swept 179.88 ETH into a hub wallet, which then paid for DEED's funding key. This key signed DEED's funding batch just 16 seconds later.

The study found that nearly every token was bought up by bundles of 70 to 200 wallets, with CRUMBS topping the list at $3.12 million extracted, followed by LEGS at $2.9 million and PINK at $1.3 million. Each of these tokens fell more than 99% from its peak.

Roughly $18.11 million still sits unspent in holding wallets on Robinhood Chain and Ethereum (ETH). The operation grew alongside the chain itself, which went live on July 1 as a Layer 2 for tokenized stocks. Speculative trading quickly took over, with daily decentralized exchange volume peaking at $3.78 billion on September 4.