Robinhood Chain is seeing a sharp decline in blockchain activity, with daily transactions falling from 10.8 million in mid-September to 6.2 million in early October, even as Robinhood continues covering network fees for customer swaps.
More than $1 billion remains deposited in applications running on the network, but transaction activity and trading volumes are losing momentum. Data from growthepie, analyzed by CoinDesk, shows that Robinhood Chain averaged 6.2 million transactions per day between Oct. 2 and Oct. 8. That was 42% below the 10.8 million daily average recorded from Sept. 10 to Sept. 16. Transactions also declined 20% from the previous week.
Launched in July, Robinhood Chain was designed to let users trade tokens, borrow and lend through applications connected to Ethereum. Robinhood has also outlined plans to offer 24-hour trading for tokens linked to stocks and investment funds.
Transactions on the blockchain incur network fees, while applications built on it may charge separate fees for trading and lending. According to a Bernstein note published last month, Robinhood receives approximately 90% of the network fees. As a result, lower transaction volumes could directly affect the fees collected by the brokerage.
The current slowdown contrasts with conditions in September. On Sept. 19, CoinDesk reported that network fees had plunged 97%, although transaction counts remained near their highs and weekly trading volume was still rising. Since then, both measures have weakened.
Active addresses have followed a similar downward trend. Robinhood Chain recorded an average of around 322,000 active addresses per day during the latest week, a 31% decline from mid-September. However, this does not necessarily mean the number of individual users has fallen by 31%, as one person can operate multiple addresses and automated trading bots can produce large numbers of transactions.
Trading volumes fall as capital stays on the network
Spot trading volume across exchanges reached $7.45 billion between Oct. 2 and Oct. 8, down 21% from $9.46 billion a week earlier, according to CoinDesk calculations based on DefiLlama data. Uniswap, the decentralized exchange that allows users to swap tokens directly, accounted for about 77% of the total.
Despite weaker trading, users have not significantly reduced their funds held on Robinhood Chain.
Deposits across its lending and trading applications climbed approximately 2% during the week to $1.04 billion. Stablecoin supply also edged higher, reaching roughly $1.10 billion. The figures indicate that capital remains on the network even as users conduct fewer trades, potentially waiting for better opportunities.
Perpetual futures are an exception to the broader slowdown. These derivatives allow traders to speculate on asset prices without holding the underlying tokens.
DefiLlama’s rolling seven-day figures showed perpetual futures volume at approximately $7.35 billion on Friday, representing a 26% increase.
Meanwhile, daily network fees fell to around $65,000 between Oct. 2 and Oct. 8, down 39% from the preceding week. The figure is a fraction of the approximately $8 million collected on the network’s busiest day in early September.
Robinhood extends fee incentives
Robinhood and its partners are introducing incentives to encourage users to keep trading. On Oct. 1, trading platform Arcus began awarding additional reward points for stock-token swaps completed through Robinhood Wallet. Robinhood also extended a fee promotion that had originally been scheduled to end on Sept. 29.
Under the updated terms, Robinhood will cover network fees on swaps worth more than 50 cents made through its wallet through Dec. 31. The offer gives the company less than three months to stimulate activity across the network’s $1 billion-plus deposit base before users have to pay those transaction costs themselves.
The promotion’s expiration will provide an important test of demand. The central question is whether Robinhood Chain can maintain its trading activity once customers are required to cover network fees without the brokerage’s support.
