Robinhood Chain Makes the Case That Ethereum Is Far From Dead
Robinhood Chain’s explosive first two weeks have revived a well-known query. Is Ethereum useless, or did a brokerage serving almost 28 million clients simply ship the strongest argument but that it’s quietly successful?
The layer-2 launched on July 1, constructed with Arbitrum expertise and utilizing ether (ETH) as its native fuel token. Ethereum finalizes its transactions and shops its data, but analysts disagree sharply over who captures the worth.
Why Robinhood Chain Strengthens the Ethereum Bull Case
Travis Kling, founding father of Ikigai Asset Management, requested this week whether or not actual corporations have any curiosity in current L1s and L2s. He pointed to Robinhood, SWIFT, Stripe, and Wall Street’s Canton as proof they like their very own blockchains.
However, Robinhood’s structure cuts in opposition to that premise. Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum layer-2, a separate community that inherits Ethereum’s safety.
Final settlement occurs on Ethereum, that means the essential community holds the definitive report of its transactions. Its official bridge wants no third-party validators, and ETH is the native fuel token.
In different phrases, Robinhood didn’t reject Ethereum. It rejected sharing a sequence with different tasks, then selected Ethereum as the mum or dad community for its personal.
The chain additionally caps a deliberate two-step technique. Robinhood launched its first-generation Stock Tokens on Arbitrum One in June 2025, examined demand on shared infrastructure for a yr, then graduated to its personal chain.
Its public testnet processed greater than 200 million transactions earlier than mainnet, per the Arbitrum Foundation.
The industrial logic mirrors Coinbase’s decision to build Base as an Ethereum layer-2 in 2023. Both corporations wished management, customized options, and predictable economics with out bootstrapping a brand new validator set, bridge, and liquidity base from scratch.
Notably, neither agency launched a proprietary fuel token. ETH already pays for layer-1 providers, carries deep liquidity, and avoids the authorized and distribution questions a brand new token would elevate.
The product case is concrete. Robinhood says Stock Tokens now commerce 24/7 by its pockets in additional than 120 nations, with a devoted Uniswap venue reside from day one. The Arbitrum Foundation places the chain’s latency at 100 milliseconds. Those specs required a devoted chain, however by no means a brand new layer-1.
Early traction helps the alternative. Within two weeks, the community passed Ethereum in volume throughout decentralized exchanges (DEX), rating third general at roughly $811 million day by day.
Meanwhile, World’s prediction market teased leaving Solana to redeploy on Robinhood Chain. While it remains unclear whether or not they moved, the prediction market acknowledges the community has movement.
In the identical tone, dealer Borovik argued the launch is bullish as a result of anybody launching an L2 nonetheless wants ETH for fuel.
Analyst Miles Deutscher, in the meantime, stated he’s already deploying capital into tasks on the new chain.
“I’m personally throwing just a few darts and DCAing into some prime tasks on the Robinhood chain (not essentially high-conviction, however wish to seize upside if this momentum continues),” Deutscher stated.
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The Bear Case Says Ethereum Sells Security Too Cheap
Lorenzo Valente, a researcher at Ark Invest, revealed the numbers behind the discomfort in a publish on X (Twitter).
“Since inception, Robinhood Chain has grossed ~$816K in income. Arbitrum, the middleware supplier, takes 10%: ~$80K. Arbitrum then pays Ethereum for settlement: $1,538,” noted Lorenzo Valente, researcher at Ark Invest.
By his math, Robinhood retains 89% of gross income, Arbitrum takes 10%, and Ethereum collects 0.15%. Valente argues a more healthy break up would route round 15% to Ethereum, as a result of the deal was received on advantage however priced poorly.
The break up will not be an accident of code. Arbitrum’s Expansion Program licence expenses chains on its stack 10% of web income, with 8% routed to the ArbitrumDAO treasury and a pair of% to its developer guild.
Ethereum, in contrast, expenses no such charge. Its Dencun upgrade in March 2024 intentionally minimize the price layer-2s pay to publish knowledge, so the $1,538 invoice is Ethereum’s personal pricing working as designed.
“When I used to be engaged on HTTP, I used to say, “there’s no cash in protocols”. Then crypto appeared to show that wasn’t fully true. But as the actual functions emerge on chain, we understand it’s in truth true. … The cash has all the time been in the utility, not the protocol,” BitGo CEO Mike Belshe noted, drawing a sharper conclusion from the identical case.
Investor Fiskantes went additional, calling the break up an id disaster born of 5 years of underperformance.
In his view, Ethereum tried to be every thing for everybody and now struggles to seize enterprise worth and performance as cash at the identical time.
What the Debate Means for ETH
The market backdrop explains the nervousness. ETH trades near $1,795, down roughly 41% over the previous yr, with a $216.7 billion market cap that also ranks second amongst all crypto belongings.
The bull studying treats ETH as cash relatively than fairness. On this view, each new company chain that adopts ETH for fuel and collateral deepens its financial function, nevertheless skinny settlement charges stay. Fee revenue was by no means the thesis.
The bear studying treats ETH as a declare on money flows. From that angle, a 0.15% income share from Ethereum’s most vital new buyer is a warning, not a victory, and the low cost has no apparent expiry date.
Still, the demise query and the valuation query usually are not the identical. Whatever the income break up, a brokerage with almost 28 million clients simply wager its flagship on-chain product on Ethereum’s stack. That is the reverse of a demise sign.
Both camps agree on one level. Robinhood picked the Ethereum stack on advantage, and merchants weighing Ethereum’s July 2026 outlook now have a cleaner check than ever.
The open query is whether or not Ethereum reprices the settlement layer it sells, or retains providing it at marginal price whereas functions accumulate the margin.
The publish Robinhood Chain Makes the Case That Ethereum Is Far From Dead appeared first on BeInCrypto.
