Arbitrum Surges 19% as Robinhood’s $568M On-Chain Trading Push Boosts Activity

Robinhood’s blockchain launch drives Arbitrum activity as ARB token rallies

Robinhood’s newly launched blockchain network is gaining momentum quickly, with a surge in memecoin trading activity boosting usage and generating revenue opportunities for the broader Arbitrum ecosystem.

The digital brokerage’s new chain has gained strong early traction, creating positive spillover effects for Arbitrum, the Ethereum-based network that provides the technology foundation behind it.

Arbitrum’s native token ARB jumped 19% over the past 24 hours, becoming the strongest-performing cryptocurrency among the top 100 assets, according to CoinDesk data. Meanwhile, Bitcoin gained 1.5% to trade above $63,000, while Ethereum rose 0.5% during a relatively quiet market session.

The rally followed strong activity on Robinhood Chain, which is built using Arbitrum’s technology stack and became publicly available a week earlier. Blockchain data from Entropy Advisors showed the network processed more than $568 million in trading volume on Wednesday and surpassed $350 million in volume on Thursday.

A large portion of the activity came from a surge in memecoin trading, while stablecoin holdings on the network also grew rapidly, exceeding $260 million within the first week after launch.

The increased usage is also creating financial benefits for Arbitrum. Under the partnership agreement, 10% of Robinhood Chain’s net protocol revenue will be directed back to the Arbitrum ecosystem, with funds divided between the DAO treasury and the Developer Guild.

Robinhood expands its crypto ambitions

Robinhood introduced the new blockchain at its London event last week as part of a broader push into crypto and blockchain-based financial products.

The company announced plans to expand access to tokenized U.S. stocks for customers in more than 120 countries, introduced a DeFi-based savings vault that generates yield through lending protocol Morpho, and revealed plans to explore AI-powered trading tools and additional asset categories.

The early performance of Robinhood Chain has exceeded some expectations. A report from FalconX in April estimated that the network could generate around $1.1 million in transaction fees during its first six months.

Brendan Ma, head of investment strategies at the Arbitrum Foundation, said the network’s current pace suggests a much stronger revenue outlook. He noted on X that based on recent activity, Robinhood Chain is already tracking toward more than $12.5 million in annualized revenue. He also pointed out that significant tokenized real-world asset (RWA) activity has yet to arrive.

Although the current trading surge may eventually cool, the growth of on-chain activity could become an important long-term revenue stream for Robinhood. FalconX estimates transaction-based revenue could eventually reach $60 million annually by 2030 as users expand beyond tokenized stocks into DeFi and other blockchain applications.