The slowdown on Robinhood's blockchain has expanded from fee generation to overall trading activity. Daily transactions fell by more than 40% from mid-September levels, even as the brokerage continued to cover network fees for customer token swaps.
According to calculations using growthepie data, Robinhood Chain averaged 6.2 million daily transactions between Oct. 2 and Oct. 8, down from 10.8 million during the Sept. 10–16 period. This represents a 20% decline from the previous week alone. Daily active addresses also dropped 31% to an average of about 322,000 during the latest tracked week, pointing to a reduction in active users and automated trading bots.
Robinhood originally launched the chain in July to facilitate token trading, borrowing, and lending through applications connected to Ethereum, with future plans for 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks and funds. Because Robinhood retains a significant portion of network fees, the drop in transactions results in reduced chain-related income.
Steady Deposits and Mixed Trading Metrics
Despite the decline in transaction volume, capital has largely remained within the network. Deposits in the chain's trading and lending applications increased by approximately 2% over the week to reach $1.04 billion, while the supply of dollar-pegged stablecoins edged up to roughly $1.10 billion.
However, spot exchange activity slowed down. Weekly spot trading volume fell 21% to $7.45 billion from $9.46 billion the preceding week, with decentralized exchange Uniswap accounting for about 77% of that volume. Perpetual futures volume presented a contrast, rising 26% to approximately $7.35 billion over a rolling seven-day period.
Fee Promotions and Subsidies
Users paid an average of about $65,000 a day in network fees from Oct. 2 through Oct. 8, down 39% from the prior week and sharply lower than the $8 million collected on the chain's busiest day in early September.
To stimulate activity, Robinhood extended its network fee promotion. The brokerage will continue covering network fees on token swaps exceeding 50 cents made through the Robinhood Wallet app until Dec. 31, providing a multi-month window for the network to re-engage its user base before participants resume paying transaction costs directly.
