Robinhood Chain out-earns Solana and BNB Chain with $33M in fees over 15 days

Robinhood’s own blockchain racked up roughly $33 million in trading fees over a 15-day stretch in September, eclipsing Solana and BNB Chain combined during the same period. Solana brought in about $11 million while BNB Chain managed approximately $9 million.

How a brokerage became a fee machine

Robinhood Chain launched its mainnet on July 1, 2026, built as an Ethereum Layer-2 network using Arbitrum’s Orbit technology. The company retains approximately 90% of all fees collected on the chain. About 10% flows to the Arbitrum treasury and development funds, while less than 1% goes to Ethereum for base-layer gas costs.

Since launch, the chain has accumulated around $39 million in cumulative fees. Total value locked sits at roughly $1.5 billion. Decentralized exchange volume has topped $50 billion.

Analysts at Bernstein flagged Robinhood Chain’s fee performance in a recent note, maintaining an Outperform rating on Robinhood Markets stock with a $160 price target.

Tokenized stocks and memecoins driving the traffic

Tokenized stock holdings on the platform surged from about $10 million to roughly $140 million within two months. Memecoins and high-frequency decentralized trading have become significant contributors to the chain’s volume.

The trading surge got so intense in late August and early September that gas fees hit record highs on the chain. Robinhood responded by absorbing gas costs for wallet users through September 29, 2026.

What this means for the competitive landscape

The fee retention model is what makes Robinhood’s approach particularly interesting for equity investors. On most decentralized networks, fees get distributed to validators, stakers, and other participants across the ecosystem. Robinhood keeping 90% of fees means the revenue flows directly to a publicly traded company’s bottom line.

Coinbase already operates the Base Layer-2 network in a similar capacity. Memecoin-driven volume is notoriously cyclical, the gas fee subsidies will eventually end, and regulatory scrutiny around tokenized securities is still an evolving landscape.

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