Robinhood Chain has experienced a dramatic decline in trading activity, with daily transactions falling 42% from 10.8 million to 6.2 million since mid-September, according to CoinDesk calculations using growthepie data. The network averaged 6.2 million transactions daily from October 2-8, down from 10.8 million during September 10-16, representing a 20% decline from the preceding week alone. Daily active addresses have also dropped 31% from mid-September, averaging approximately 322,000 addresses during the latest week, suggesting fewer users and trading bots are utilizing the platform.
Network fees have collapsed dramatically, with fees falling from a maximum value of $11.42 million to $595K, representing a 95% decline. This represents a fraction of the $8 million collected on the chain's busiest day in early September. Robinhood retains roughly 90% of network fees from token swaps worth more than 50 cents made through its Robinhood Wallet app, as reported by Bernstein. The company has extended its fee promotion, covering network fees on token swaps over 50 cents until December 31, giving the chain under three months to restore trading activity before users begin paying their own network fees.
Average daily DEX volumes have plunged significantly, falling from $173 million to $8.95 million, indicating low network usage across the Layer 2 chain. Trading activity shows 54% of token trading volume is seller-biased, accounting for $134 million against $114 million for longs. The slowdown has extended beyond network fees to actual trading activity, with weekly spot trading volume dropping 21% to $7.45 billion during October 2-8, down from $9.46 billion the previous week, according to DefiLlama data. Users are maintaining their positions, as deposits in lending and trading apps rose 2% to $1.04 billion over the week, while stablecoin supply increased to approximately $1.10 billion.
PONS has crashed 71% from its all-time high, falling from $0.9725 to $0.2897 during a correction lasting nearly a month and a half. The token has now slipped below a $200 million market cap for the first time since August, trading at a deep discount while Robinhood Chain activity fades. Despite the low usage, investors started to buy the dip, with retailers, whales, and smart money showing bullish sentiment with the ratio above 1.41 across exchanges. However, the whale position on OKX was extremely bearish with a ratio of 0.70, while on Binance it was 1.99. The OI-Weighted Funding Rate turned green over the 30-minute timeframe, indicating genuine buying activity even with declining prices.
Despite the current challenges, Robinhood Chain continues evaluating a transaction-ordering system that would allow users to pay fees to prioritize certain trades. The technology is being developed by Arbitrum, which provides the infrastructure behind Robinhood Chain. This newer version of the tech, called Priority Gas Auctions, allows traders to pay higher fees to have individual transactions processed ahead of others, potentially helping professional firms compete for trading opportunities. The system operates differently from traditional brokerage models, where market makers pay brokers for routing customer trades, and could level the playing field for entities seeking faster trading connections.
