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Robinhood Chain is clearing more than $800 million in daily decentralized exchange (DEX) volume two weeks after launch, with meme coins doing most of the lifting. Artemis CEO Jon Ma warns that the network’s biggest strength could become its biggest liability.
The layer-2 network runs on Arbitrum, handling trades faster and cheaper than Ethereum itself. It launched July 1 to host tokenized stocks and real-world assets (RWA), yet speculative tokens have dominated early trading.
Meme Coins Drive Robinhood Chain’s Early DEX Volume
DefiLlama recorded roughly $819 million in 24-hour DEX volume on Tuesday and $3.9 billion for the week. That figure measures the value of tokens changing hands on the chain each day. The network briefly passed Ethereum in volume on Monday before slipping back behind it.
Robinhood Chain 24-hour DEX volume on Tuesday, July 14. Source: DefiLlamaCash Cat (CASHCAT), a token built on Robinhood’s pre-launch internal name, holds a $156 million market cap, per CoinGecko. Thinner plays like Robin Hood (FOX) doubled in a day on a market cap near $2 million.
Ma runs Artemis, an on-chain analytics firm, and invested in Robinhood pre-IPO in 2019. In an open letter to CEO Vlad Tenev, he acknowledged the strong start.
He counted 300,000-plus daily active addresses, $40 million in annualized fees, and $300 million in total value locked (TVL).
Still, he argued memes account for most trading. He pointed to the 2024 meme coin class on Coinbase’s Base network, down 99% from peak by his count. He also recalled 2021, when GameStop mania forced Tenev to testify before Congress.
Majority of DEX volume is still primarily meme coins (animal memes, vlad and robinhood memes, or general memes. Source: Jon Ma on X“But meme coins lose people money and destroy trust…PLEASE Robinhood DO NOT build a meme coin chain,” Ma cautioned.
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Supporters Bet on Liquidity First, Utility Later
Not everyone agrees. Analyst Miles Deutscher called Robinhood Chain one of the year’s most compelling crypto narratives.
Trader Bark argued the meme wave previews what happens when Robinhood’s retail base arrives onchain. Ma’s own letter puts that base at 27 million funded accounts.
“Tens of millions of people are one app update away from participating in memes for the first time.”
Arbitrum said the network earned over $800,000 in revenue in seven days, annualizing near $42 million. Its expansion program routes 10% of that to the Arbitrum (ARB) ecosystem, and ARB price gained 16% this week.
Ethereum, by contrast, captures almost none of that value, a split analysts already debate.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong backed positive-sum use cases in the debate, calling users and liquidity the strongest moat. Grayscale research similarly found the market now rewards fundamentals over meme speculation.
Whether meme coins prove a gateway or a distraction may become clearer once Robinhood connects its main app to the chain. Until then, the network’s loudest critics and its biggest fans are pointing at the same numbers.
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