The transaction volume on Robinhood's chain dropped by 42%, and online activity...

Robinhood Chain trading volume plunged 42%, but more than US$1 billion in funds remained.

Robinhood Chain activity has dropped significantly since its September peak. Although there are still more than $1 billion in deposits in online apps, daily trading volumes have dropped 42%, and spot trading activity has also waned. According to Growthepie, the average daily transaction volume of the Ethereum Layer 2 solution was approximately 6.2 million transactions between October 2 and October 8, compared with 10.8 million transactions between September 10 and September 16. Activity also dropped by about 20% compared to the previous week.

The number of daily active addresses also showed the same trend. The average value for the latest measurement week was approximately 322,000, a decrease of 31% from mid-September. It should be noted that the number of addresses is not the same as the number of unique users, because one person can control multiple wallets and automated systems may generate a large number of transaction records.

Is the transaction withdrawing from Robinhood Chain?

The most obvious signs of weakness are currently in spot trading. Between October 2 and October 8, the decentralized exchange (DEX) on Robinhood Chain handled approximately $7.45 billion in trading volume, down 21% from $9.46 billion the previous week. Among them, Uniswap accounted for approximately 77% of total transaction volume.

This is in sharp contrast to the situation in September. At the time, although Robinhood Chain fees plunged 97% from their peak, trading volume remained relatively strong. At that stage, the network was characterized by cost reductions rather than a substantial decline in activity. Today, trading volumes and spot turnover have fallen along with fees.

However, capital has not been withdrawn at the same rate. During the week measured, deposits in the Robinhood Chain lending and trading app increased by about 2% to $1.04 billion, while the supply of stablecoins remained at around $1.1 billion. The latest data from DefiLlama shows that the total value (TVL) of chain locked positions is approximately US$1.05 billion, and the stablecoin is approximately US$1.07 billion. This combination shows that capital remains on the chain, but changes hands with less frequency. Although blockchain data cannot exactly explain why individual user transactions have decreased, it suggests that funds are stuck.

Investor Revelation: Slowdown is more about turnover than capital flight

The current slowdown is mainly reflected in a decline in asset turnover rather than a complete escape of capital: even though transaction volume and spot size fall, more than US$1 billion of capital is still deployed.

Why do perpetual contracts perform better than the broader market?

The trend of perpetual contracts runs counter to the overall trend. In a preliminary reading on October 9, trading volume on a rolling seven-day perpetual contracts reached approximately US$7.35 billion, a 26% increase, despite declining spot activity. The latest DefiLlama snapshot still shows this divergence: Seven-day DEX trading volume was approximately US$6.77 billion, down approximately 26%, while perpetual contract trading volume was approximately US$7.19 billion and remained above last week's levels.

Robinhood integrated decentralized perpetual contract transactions into its wallet application when it launched the Robinhood Chain main network in July. Eligible users can access perpetual contracts through Lighter, while also using spot trading, lending, borrowing and tokenized stock applications. This structure is important because the sheer number of transactions does not reflect the economic value of the activity. If users turn to higher-value derivatives rather than frequent low-value conversions, the network can process fewer transactions while retaining a large amount of leveraged trading volume.

How much have Robinhood Chain fees dropped?

Between October 2 and October 8, the average daily network fee paid by users was approximately US$65,000, a drop of 39% from the previous week and well below the approximately US$8 million charged on the busiest day of early September. Current DefiLlama data shows that this decline continues, with chain expenses in the last 24 hours of approximately US$46,000, and the portion classified as chain revenue is approximately US$41,000. This means that nearly 90% of network expenses are collected as revenue at the chain level.

因此，费用的下降不仅仅是一个区块链活动统计数据。如果低使用率持续存在，Robinhood 通过直接收取网络费来变现基础设施的机会也会变小。该链于 7 月 1 日作为金融服务和现实世界资产的基础设施推出，包括 Robinhood 的新“股票代币”（Stock Tokens）。这些产品是代币化的债务证券，提供对基础股票和 ETF 的经济敞口，但不授予对这些证券的直接所有权权利。Robinhood 已将股票代币定位为该链的主要用例之一。

投资者启示：若要让 Chain 费用成为有意义的经常性收入来源，Robinhood 需要持久的交易需求，而不仅仅是存入的资本

当 Robinhood 停止支付 Gas 费时会发生什么？

Robinhood 仍在为其试图构建的部分活动提供补贴。该公司延长了一项促销计划，涵盖 Robinhood Chain 上 Robinhood Wallet 超过 0.50 美元的交换网络费用，有效期至 12 月 31 日。此前，该促销计划原定于 9 月 29 日结束。在活动已经下滑的时候，这一延期消除了钱包用户的另一个摩擦点。

此外，Arcus 单独为通过 Robinhood Wallet 进行的股票代币交换提供了额外的奖励积分，为用户交易增加了另一重激励。12 月 31 日的到期日为测试有机需求提供了一个有用的窗口。如果在用户开始自行支付网络费用之前，交易活动能够恢复，那么当前的放缓可能只是九月异常激烈交易期后的正常化。然而，如果即使在 Gas 费补贴的情况下活动继续下滑，那么更艰难的问题将是：一旦补贴消失，会发生什么？

Robinhood Chain 已经证明它可以吸引超过 10 亿美元的资本。接下来的考验是，在没有 Robinhood 承担部分成本的情况下，这些资本能否产生持续的交易活动。