Robinhood Chain generated about $51 million in network revenue in its first quarter of operation, while Ethereum brought in roughly $41 million over the same period, according to ARK Invest's DeFi Quarterly covering the third quarter of 2026. The report also showed Ethereum's network revenue fell about 35% from the second quarter.
Ethereum Missed a Rebound Quarter
Across the networks tracked in the report, revenue rose about 24% from the second quarter to roughly $349 million, though the total remained about 47% below its level a year earlier. ARK said the quarter marked the first increase in five quarters, crediting the rise to Solana's recovery and Robinhood Chain's debut.
Ethereum also lost ground in tokenization. Its share of tokenized real-world asset value on public blockchains fell from about 50% in late June to 44%, though it still hosted the most, at about $16.7 billion. Ethereum's decentralized exchange (DEX) volume fell about 27% from the second quarter, while Base's dropped about 17%. ARK said trading volume shifted toward newer venues such as Robinhood Chain.
Robinhood Chain Faces Its First Earnings Test
Robinhood opened the chain's public mainnet on July 1, about five months after its testnet went live in February. The network settles transactions on Ethereum and uses ETH as its gas token, meaning Ethereum still collects a portion of the fees the chain generates.
In its debut quarter, the chain processed about $65 billion in DEX volume, making it the fourth-largest network by DEX volume in ARK's data. Tokenized equities accounted for about $13.7 billion of that trading; only BNB Chain hosted more, at roughly $16.5 billion.
For Robinhood shareholders, the revenue question lands on October 27, when the company reports third-quarter results covering the chain's first full quarter of operation. Robinhood tied the chain's payoff to usage in its second-quarter filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission: "Our ability to generate revenue from Robinhood Chain depends significantly on the level of adoption and developer activity on the network."
Coinbase offers a precedent. It noted in July that it books Base sequencer fees within other transaction revenue. That line fell about 11% from the first quarter to $47.4 million, a drop CFO Alesia Haas tied to lower instant transfer activity and Base revenue.
ARK also flagged a risk to those numbers: "We do not expect to see Robinhood Chain continue to post such impressive revenue numbers, as a recent increase in gas on Robinhood Chain will eliminate high fees from congestion pricing."
Robinhood shares traded at $101.9 at press time, down 11.5% in 2026 so far. The upcoming call will show whether management reports the chain's contribution separately.
