In a notable debut week, Robinhood Chain—the company’s new layer-2 blockchain—has pulled in over $70 million worth of Ether (ETH) via bridge transactions. According to data from Token Terminal, the network launched on July 1 and quickly attracted significant capital.
The chain is built on Arbitrum technology and is fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Unlike some other layer-2 networks, it uses ETH as its native gas token, meaning every transaction on the network requires a small amount of ETH to pay for processing. Robinhood has described the chain as “AI-native and purpose-built for real-world assets,” suggesting a focus beyond simple crypto trading.
Token Terminal noted that if this early adoption continues, the chain could become a meaningful source of new demand for ETH. The timing seems good. Robinhood has also been expanding into tokenized stocks, offering them to customers in over 120 countries. The demand for tokenized U.S. equities is surging, and Ethereum (along with its layer-2 scaling networks) currently holds more than 50% of the market for tokenized real-world assets (RWA), according to RWA.xyz. Robinhood’s move might help cement that lead.
Turning Liquidity Into Activity
Token Terminal followed up with another observation: “Robinhood Chain is rapidly turning liquidity into economic activity.” The numbers back that up. Within its first week, the chain hit 194,000 daily active users and saw daily revenue grow to $39,000, which translates to an annualized revenue run rate of about $14 million.
Decentralized finance data platform DefiLlama reports similar activity. It shows Robinhood Chain has a total value locked (TVL) of roughly 46,748 ETH, worth about $83 million at current prices. Thursday alone saw inflows of 31,855 ETH, roughly $55 million.
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams commented on Friday, noting that most of the activity on Robinhood Chain is ETH-denominated. He explained that ETH serves as the base trading pair, the highest-volume asset, and the gas token for paying for blockspace. “It also burns ETH on L1 to pay data storage fees,” he added.
Market Reactions and Broader Implications
Andri Fauzan Adziima, research lead at Bitrue Research Institute, called the early volume “strongly bullish” and said it validates the layer-2 flywheel, creating a “meaningful new demand sink.” Tim Sun, a senior researcher at HashKey Group, agreed. “For Ethereum, the most direct benefit is that Robinhood Chain uses ETH for gas. As bridged assets, wallet addresses, and on-chain transactions grow, new demand for ETH is generated,” he said.
Bulls point to Ethereum’s longer-term growth thesis, which relies on real-world asset tokenization, institutional adoption, agentic AI payments, and upcoming network upgrades like Glamsterdam, expected before the end of 2026. That upgrade is designed to boost layer-1 capacity.
Despite all this positive activity, ETH prices have remained stuck at multi-year bear market lows. On Friday, ETH ticked up slightly to $1,775, but that’s still 64% down from its August 2025 peak. It’s a reminder that even with strong on-chain activity, price can lag behind fundamentals for a while.
