Author: Alea Research

Translation: Shenchao TechFlow

Shenchao Read: US stock brokerages building their own non-token Layer 2 solutions are rewriting the commercialization path of public chains. In the first complete quarter post-mainnet launch (Q3 2026), Robinhood Chain captured about 80% of the Ethereum Layer 2 fee revenue, with an on-chain trading volume of $90.7 billion, surpassing the combined trading volumes of its parent company's namesake app and Bitstamp.

The on-chain research institution Alea Research reveals the true profit structure following the introduction of on-chain financial channels and USDG reserve returns by dissecting the fee-sharing curve, the wave of Pons V2 launches, and price mechanisms of stock tokens on weekends and off-market, providing empirical samples for evaluating institutional-grade RWA public chains.

In the third quarter of 2026 (the first public quarter after the mainnet launch), Robinhood Chain secured 80% of the network fee revenue from Ethereum Layer 2. Its trading volume on the on-chain exchange reached $90.7 billion, exceeding the combined trading volume of $50 billion in cryptocurrencies facilitated by the Robinhood app itself and Bitstamp.

During the same period, a wave of token launches contributed 74% of the network's fees, and the share of stock tokens in the decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume on the chain also climbed month by month.

Figure: Comparison of monthly network fees for Ethereum L2 in Q3 2026, including Robinhood Chain, Base, Arbitrum One, and OP Mainnet (Source: growthepie)

Even excluding the aforementioned 12-day launch wave, Robinhood Chain still accounted for 57.7% of all L2 network fees during the remaining 80 days of that quarter, higher than the 30.7% held by Coinbase's Base. By the last week of September, its daily average fees dropped back to the initial levels seen between July 1 and August 29.

Key Points

· Regardless of whether the launch wave is included, Robinhood Chain leads the network fees among all L2s. In Q3, it achieved total revenues of $51 million, while the median fees across all L2 were only $24,700.

· From July to September, the proportion of stock tokens in DEX trading volume increased from 2.6% to 15.6%. During all 37 instances of weekend and holiday volatility, where the movement exceeded or equaled 1%, token prices all pointed in the correct direction before Monday's US stock market opening.

· With equivalent days of operation, the scale of funds in Robinhood Earn surpassed that of Coinbase's lending vault. At the beginning of its 92nd day of operation, its Steakhouse vault on Morpho managed $499 million, 18% higher than Coinbase at the same stage.

· Calculating based on the initial sharing percentage, Robinhood received $22.9 million from network fees in Q3, which accounted for 19% of the season's total revenue of $120 million from all of Robinhood's crypto business total.

· After the launch wave, the network gas prices fell back to the bottom range, but the number of returning active addresses remained robust. In September, the number of returning addresses surpassed Base, and the total value locked (TVL) on-chain applications set a historical high of $1.15 billion on October 22.

Robinhood relinquished most of the early sharing

Robinhood Chain is built on the Arbitrum tech stack and has not issued a native token. Similar to Coinbase, which operates Base, Robinhood is responsible for collecting on-chain gas fees but shares a higher percentage with ecosystem stakeholders. Arbitrum charges a 10% technology licensing fee based on total network fees.

The remaining portion adopts a tiered sharing mechanism: Before cumulative operating revenue reaches approximately $50 million, Robinhood retains 50%; as revenue scales, the retention percentage will successively increase to 70% and 85%. Calculated at the initial 50% rate, Robinhood's share in Q3 amounted to $22.9 million.

Figure: The $51 million total network fees of Robinhood Chain in Q3 2026, net of the 10% Arbitrum licensing fee and a 50% tiered sharing, distribution path

Moreover, traders paid up to $593 million in application layer fees in Q3, of which application operators retained $147 million. After the governance proposal was passed, the Uniswap protocol fee switch was activated on this chain on July 27, and as of September 30, it had funded the repurchase and destruction of UNI worth $13.7 million.

The wave of token launches contributed most of the network fees

During Q3, Robinhood Chain paid an average of 6.4 cents in gas fees per transaction, compared to only 1.4 cents before the launch wave. The launch platform Pons launched the V2 factory contract on August 4, completing a total of 648,701 token launches, which pushed gas consumption beyond the preset target, causing the base fee to skyrocket with the backlog of transactions.

Figure: Daily network fee heat map of Robinhood Chain in Q3 2026, with the launch wave from August 30 to September 10 contributing 74% of the quarterly total fees

On the busiest day, September 4, fee revenue reached $8.36 million, more than double the total for July. This surge belonged to Robinhood Chain's independent market: Compared to the previous 12 days, Pons V2's fee revenue soared 7.3 times, while pump.fun declined by 33% during the same period.

Robinhood raised the network gas target cap to 40 million gas per second twice within three days, and subsequently lowered it back to 15 million on October 18. In other words, Robinhood's own capacity management settings directly determined most of the fee volumes on this chain in Q3.

In the last week of September, the average daily network fees fell to $121,000, nearly back to the speed seen at the initial launch; when priced in ETH, it was down 24%. From October 1 to 19, the average daily fees dropped to $54,600, less than half of the initial levels, and gas consumption from the launch platform decreased by 91% or more.

Stock tokens continued to discover prices during NYSE trading halts

Stock tokens are Robinhood's tokenized US stock products essentially backed 1:1 by the underlying shares. They are minted solely by Bitstamp, a subsidiary of Robinhood responsible for minting. In September, the trading volume of non-newly issued tokens reached $8.7 billion, surpassing bStocks’ $6.4 billion.

In the top 60 stock token liquidity pools in terms of trading volume, 67.1% of the volume during Q3 occurred while the NYSE was closed. Over the weekend alone, the trading volume accounted for 18.2%, despite the underlying share minting and redemption channels being closed at that time.

Figure: Trading volume distribution among the top 60 stock token liquidity pools in Q3 2026, with 67.1% occurring outside regular NYSE trading hours

Trading during the halt effectively completed price discovery. In the 30 minutes before Monday's opening, all 37 instances of weekend and holiday gap movements with magnitudes of at least 1% all correctly predicted the direction, with a median price movement of 86%.

At the close of the NYSE in September, the median price spread of the top ten most actively traded stock tokens relative to their underlying stock prices was only 13 basis points, significantly narrowed from 29 basis points in July.

Robinhood plans to eventually allow qualified holders to vote and redeem tokens for underlying shares, though a clear timeline has yet to be established. The new regulation released by the US SEC on September 17 permits tokenized stocks with dividends and voting rights to be traded on compliant exchanges in the United States, rights that the current products do not possess.

Since October, the composability of stock tokens has further expanded. On October 22, Morpho and Robinhood jointly launched a lending market allowing holders to borrow stablecoins using stock tokens as collateral.

On October 27, Ondo introduced 15 types of tokenized stocks and ETFs to the chain, of which 11 are directly paired for trading in Uniswap pools with corresponding stock tokens. Ondo opens cross-chain minting and redemption for these 11 assets daily on Ethereum and BNB Chain, uninterrupted even on weekends.

Key upcoming milestones for Robinhood Chain

In its report on October 27, Robinhood listed the chain as among the top five for public chain revenue and trading volume. The next key milestone will enhance Robinhood's share of the new fees per additional dollar; the remaining two milestones will test the true willingness to pay after subsidies are removed and the prospect of local weekend trading.

· December 25: The 70% sharing tier will be triggered according to the October pace. As of October 26, the operator's cumulative income was just $2.9 million below the $50 million threshold; once crossed, Robinhood will receive a higher proportion of new network fees.

· December 31: Wallet gas subsidies will expire. Before this, Robinhood Wallet will continue to fully cover gas for exchange transactions over $0.5; January will be the first month to reflect daily average real fee demand under unsubsidized conditions.

· Early 2027: Robinhood plans to open US stock weekend trading within its app. Subject to regulatory approval, Robinhood plans to directly provide weekend trading features for US domestic users who cannot yet hold stock tokens.

Conclusion

In Q3 2026, whether or not including the launch wave, no other L2 earned more network fees than Robinhood Chain. While the pulse market contributed peak revenue, the core underlying products achieved solid growth: stock tokens expanded their trading share month by month and provided advanced pricing guidance for Monday before the opening bell.

Even as October gas revenue has dropped to a low, the $683 million USDG reserve underlying treasury earnings, calculated at treasury bill rates, still amounts to about $26.9 million annually, three times Robinhood's own gas fees share. Subsequently, as the sharing percentage steps into the next tier, its increment per dollar fee will continue to rise.