Robinhood Chain Mainnet Goes Live, Product Suite Expands
On July 2, Robinhood held its 'The World is Flat' event in London, officially launching its Layer 2 blockchain, Robinhood Chain, built on Arbitrum Orbit. The chain is designed as an institutional-grade, AI-native infrastructure optimized for real-world assets (RWA). Following the announcement, Robinhood's stock price surged 8.35% to $108.6, reaching a six-month high.
Robinhood rolled out a suite of on-chain products alongside the chain: tokenized stocks now available in over 120 countries, tradeable via DEXs including Uniswap, 1inch, Rialto, Lighter, and Arcus, with the ability to use them as collateral for lending or liquidity pools; on-chain perpetual contracts launched with a 90-day fee and gas subsidy; and Robinhood Earn, a decentralized lending product for US users offering an estimated ~7% APY on USDG deposits, powered by Morpho and backed by Steakhouse, Ethena, Spark, and others with an insurance mechanism.
Robinhood also extended its AI trading capabilities on-chain through Agentic Accounts, allowing eligible US users to deploy AI models for autonomous execution. The company continues global expansion, covering ~28 million users, with launches in Canada, a Singapore MAS license, European perpetuals for commodities/ETFs/forex, and upcoming UK crypto trading.
Top Protocols Join Ecosystem, dYdX Sparks Controversy
Leveraging its massive user base, top protocols such as Uniswap, 1inch, Lighter, Morpho, Chainlink, BitGo, Ethena, and EtherFi have integrated with Robinhood Chain, covering trading, liquidity, lending, oracles, custody, and cross-chain services. However, the most controversial partnership came from dYdX.
On July 2, the dYdX Foundation announced a collaboration with Robinhood to launch Arcus, a decentralized exchange built on Robinhood Chain. Arcus supports 95 tokenized stocks, perpetual contracts, and major crypto assets, with plans to allow tokenized stocks and crypto as collateral, and pre-IPO trading of private companies like OpenAI. A beta test is live, with mainnet expected later in 2026.
Community backlash centered on the fact that Arcus was not deployed on dYdX Chain but as an independent product on Robinhood Chain. dYdX founder Antonio explained that operating a standalone L1 required trade-offs between performance, user experience, and decentralization, while Robinhood Chain offers ~27.7 million funded accounts for immediate users and liquidity. Arcus also received strategic investment from Robinhood Crypto.
Market Reaction: DYDX Plunges Over 40%
Community members expressed fears that core team resources and attention would shift to Arcus, potentially diluting or replacing the dYdX brand. Given dYdX's history of one of the largest airdrops in crypto and Arcus's future token launch expectations, traders and liquidity were expected to migrate. On the announcement day, DYDX token fell approximately 40.7%.
The dYdX Foundation reiterated that its commitment to the dYdX protocol and governance remains unchanged, with dYdX Chain fully operational. DYDX governance, staking, and community treasury remain intact, with staking rewards continuing in USDC. Antonio, as the largest DYDX holder, pledged that if Arcus issues tokens, a portion will be reserved for the dYdX community, and Arcus will prioritize dYdX traders. However, these assurances did not fully alleviate market concerns.
In summary, Robinhood aims to transform from an internet broker into a global on-chain financial gateway, but the dYdX controversy highlights the brand conflicts and token value risks inherent in ecosystem integration.