Just before releasing its Q2 earnings report, Robinhood made a blockbuster announcement: the mainnet launch of its Layer2 chain, Robinhood Chain, along with a suite of crypto products including tokenized stocks, on-chain lending, and AI-driven trading. The market reacted positively, with Robinhood’s stock price rising 8.35% to $108.6, a six-month high. In a highly contested L2 landscape, Robinhood Chain—backed by Robinhood’s massive user base and mature financial operations—quickly attracted a constellation of top-tier crypto protocols, sparking unexpected community controversy.
Robinhood Chain Mainnet and On-Chain Financial Product Suite
On July 2, Robinhood held “The World is Flat” event in London, unveiling its latest strategic moves in on-chain finance, AI trading, and global expansion. The centerpiece, Robinhood Chain, is built on Arbitrum Orbit and has moved from testnet to public mainnet after months of testing. Designed for institutional-grade applications and AI-native architecture, it is specifically optimized for real-world asset (RWA) settlement. Alongside the chain, Robinhood expanded its on-chain product matrix: tokenized stocks via Robinhood Wallet now cover over 120 countries, enabling trading through DEXs like Uniswap, Rialto, Lighter, 1inch, and Arcus, and allowing use as collateral in lending or liquidity pools. Perpetual contracts went live with a 90-day fee waiver and gas subsidy, plus loyalty incentives. For U.S. users, Robinhood Earn—the first decentralized lending product within the main app—is rolling out gradually, powered by Morpho’s lending infrastructure, offering ~7% APY on USDG stablecoin deposits, supported by Steakhouse, Ethena, Spark, Maple, and an insurance mechanism. Additionally, Robinhood launched crypto-native Agentic Accounts, enabling eligible U.S. users to connect AI models for autonomous market scanning and execution.
Global Expansion Amid Crypto Revenue Headwinds
These moves come as Robinhood’s crypto business faces mounting pressure. In Q1, crypto revenue fell 47% year-over-year to $134 million, and crypto notional trading volume dropped 48% to $24 billion. To reignite growth, Robinhood has been expanding globally: it now covers roughly 28 million users, with recent launches in Canada, a Singapore subsidiary obtaining a MAS capital markets services license, plans for commodity, ETF, and forex perpetuals in Europe, and upcoming crypto trading services in the U.K. Leveraging its massive user base and regulatory advantages, Robinhood Chain is positioned as the core vehicle for transforming from a neobroker into a next-generation global financial gateway.
dYdX Launches Arcus, DYDX Plunges 40%
Among the ecosystem integrations, dYdX’s new DEX, Arcus, triggered significant controversy. On July 2, the dYdX Foundation announced a partnership with Robinhood to launch Arcus on Robinhood Chain. Arcus will support 95 tokenized stocks, perpetuals, and major crypto assets, with future plans to allow tokenized stocks and crypto as perpetual collateral and to offer Pre-IPO access to companies like OpenAI. A beta version is already live, with a full launch expected later in 2026. The community backlash stems from the fact that Arcus, developed by the same team behind dYdX, is not deployed on dYdX Chain but operates independently on Robinhood Chain. dYdX founder Antonio explained that running a dedicated public chain requires trade-offs between performance, user experience, and decentralization, while Robinhood Chain provides immediate access to ~27.7 million funded accounts, bringing ready-made users and liquidity. Arcus also received strategic investment from Robinhood Crypto. However, the community fears that development resources, product focus, and market attention will shift to Arcus, diluting dYdX Chain’s activity and eroding DYDX token value. Antonio pledged that dYdX Chain governance, staking, and community treasury remain unchanged, and if Arcus issues a token, a portion will be reserved for the dYdX community, with early access for dYdX traders. Despite these assurances, DYDX token plunged ~40.7% intraday.
Market Impact and Outlook
Overall, Robinhood’s ambition extends far beyond providing a blockchain infrastructure. By leveraging its massive user base, mature brokerage operations, and global compliance footprint, Robinhood is using Robinhood Chain to accelerate its transition from an internet broker to a next-generation global financial gateway. For dYdX, the launch of Arcus represents both a proactive response to competitive pressure and a deep governance and token-value dilemma. The shockwaves from a single L2 chain are reshaping the decentralized finance landscape, but whether this ambition becomes reality remains to be seen.