The launch of Robinhood Chain on an Ethereum layer-2 network is bullish for long-term value and network effects, argue analysts.
Robinhood Chain has generated $816,000 in gross revenue since launching on July 1, with 89% captured by Robinhood, 10% by Arbitrum as middleware, and only 0.15%, or $1,538, paid to Ethereum for settlement, which doesn’t sound great.
Robinhood Chain is an EVM-compatible Arbitrum-based layer-2 network that uses ETH as its native gas token, but Ethereum is not seeing any revenue benefits yet.
Bullish or Bearish for Ethereum?
Lorenzo Valente, director of research at Ark Invest, said, “If your thesis is ‘ETH is money,’ Robinhood building here is ultra bullish.” “More activity, more ETH collateral, more lindyness,” he added.
However, for those who believe ETH is a revenue-generating asset, “this is the ultra-bear case.” He added that Robinhood was never going to build on Solana, Sui, or any “monolithic layer-1” because it wants stack customization.
“They want to be landlords, not renters. Ethereum won this deal on merit. It’s just not pricing it right … Ethereum sells the most valuable settlement layer in crypto at marginal cost.”
Valente said that a healthier split would be 75% to Robinhood, 10% to Arbitrum, and 15% to Ethereum.
The Robinhood Chain is the cleanest case study of what happened to ETH’s economics over time.
Since inception, @RobinhoodApp Chain has grossed ~$816K in revenue.@Arbitrum, the middleware provider, takes 10%: ~$80K.
Arbitrum then pays Ethereum for settlement: $1,538.
The… pic.twitter.com/Jc8k4yi60M
— Lorenzo Valente (@LorenzoARK) July 13, 2026
Responding to the post, Consensys founder Joe Lubin said Ethereum layer-1 revenue fees should stay low to foster growth.
You may also like:
“Tens of thousands of companies will set up shop over the next 2-3 years on some mix of Ethereum L1, L2s, and private permissioned EVMs.”
“Monetary premium will grow very large, fee revenue to L1 from so much activity,” he added before concluding that staking and other locking away of ETH will reduce supply, and “net burning of ETH under ultrasound conditions will further grow the value of ETH.”
Since its launch a fortnight ago, 82,895 ETH worth around $147.5 million has been bridged to Robinhood Chain, according to Defillama. Analysts say this has become another demand sink, along with staking, which has 33% of the supply locked, treasury companies, and ETFs.
No Love For ETH Prices
Despite this bullish narrative, Ether prices remain at multi-year bear market lows with low volume and negative sentiment. ETH is trading flat on the day at around $1,780 following a dip to $1,750 during early Tuesday trading in Asia.
It has moved off its cycle low of just over $1,500 in late June, but has hit resistance at $1,800 six times over the past ten days. This remains the barrier to break for ETH to continue its slow climb higher.
The major catalysts for Ether are macro and likely to be inflation coming down and lower chances of a Fed rate hike.
LIMITED OFFER for CryptoPotato readers at Bybit: Use this link to register and open a $500 FREE position on any coin!
Be the first to comment