ARK Invest Director of Research Lorenzo Valente said Robinhood Chain has sent only about $1,538 in revenue to Ethereum since launch, even though Ethereum serves as the chain’s final settlement layer. In a post on X dated July 14, he said that amount represents roughly 0.15% of Robinhood Chain’s total revenue of about $816,000.
Using the figures cited in Valente’s post, the revenue split breaks down this way: Robinhood has taken about 89%, or roughly $725,000; Arbitrum, identified as the middleware or L2 layer, has received around 10%, or about $80,000; and Ethereum, as the L1 settlement layer, has received about 0.15%, or $1,538.
Valente argues Ethereum is being underpriced
Valente said the takeaway depends on how ETH is framed. If ETH is viewed as money, Robinhood building its chain in the Ethereum ecosystem is a bullish signal. If ETH is viewed as a revenue-generating asset, he said, the arrangement looks bearish.
He added that Robinhood chose Ethereum because of its technical strengths and customization options rather than using a single-layer network such as Solana or Sui. In his view, Ethereum is selling its most valuable settlement layer at marginal cost, and the market has not priced that correctly.
His proposed split is 75%, 10%, and 15%
Valente said a more reasonable allocation would be 75% for Robinhood, 10% for Arbitrum, and 15% for Ethereum.
On the same day, Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin said L1 fees should stay low. He also said tens of thousands of companies would be operating on the Ethereum ecosystem over the next two to three years, with ETH’s monetary premium rising sharply.
Uniswap numbers offered a same-day comparison
Also on July 14, Uniswap founder Hayden Adams shared figures showing Uniswap generates $5.2 million in daily fee revenue, ranking behind only Tether and Circle among crypto protocols.
Against that backdrop, Robinhood Chain has generated about $816,000 over its first two weeks, or around $116,000 per day on average. Ethereum’s share of that daily figure comes in at less than $220.
Valente’s point was that Robinhood Chain may be drawing strong attention, but Ethereum, which handles final settlement, is receiving only a small slice of the revenue tied to that activity. He said the issue extends beyond Robinhood Chain and reflects how revenue is being distributed across the broader Ethereum L2 ecosystem.