Most new blockchains launch with plenty of promises and very little activity.
Just three weeks after launching Robinhood Chain on July 1, the company's new blockchain had already attracted $450 million in total value locked and processed more than 95 million transactions, according to Robinhood Crypto GM Johann Kerbrat.
"We were not really sure about the excitement from the community," Kerbrat told Coinage at The Tie's Out East conference, noting that the chain debuted during what he described as a low point for crypto markets this year. "But it's been really good to see how many people have been bringing their assets."
The early surge reflects more than crypto traders chasing another new network. Robinhood is attempting to turn its existing base of 26 million funded accounts into a distribution engine for onchain finance — one capable of funneling users, liquidity and market makers directly into products ranging from stablecoin lending to tokenized stocks.
That may be the clearest difference between Robinhood Chain and the dozens of other Layer 2 networks launched in recent years. Robinhood does not need to build an audience from scratch. It can put blockchain products directly inside an app already used by millions of retail investors, and it's already proving fruitful.
"What we are really good at at Robinhood is making complicated problems very simple and easy to use," Kerbrat said.
The company's lending product, for example, allows customers to convert U.S. dollars into stablecoins and deposit them into an onchain lending pool in only a few taps. Robinhood handles the conversion and wallet infrastructure behind the scenes, removing steps that have historically made decentralized finance inaccessible to mainstream users.
That product has already attracted roughly $100 million from retail customers and was offering an annual yield of approximately 7% at the time of the interview, Kerbrat said.
The company is also leaning into something many more buttoned-up financial firms would rather avoid: memecoins.
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Kerbrat argued that speculative trading activity has helped bring assets, customers and market makers onto the chain at a critical early stage. It has also encouraged wallets and other crypto applications to support Robinhood Chain before the company rolls out the full suite of products it announced.
"The memecoin activity is also beneficial for the chain," he said. "That brings value, that brings TVL on the chain, that brings market makers, that brings excitement."