The network averaged 6.2 million transactions a day during Oct. 2–8, down 42% from 10.8 million during Sept. 10–16, according to CoinDesk calculations using growthepie data. Activity fell 20% from the preceding week alone
Robinhood launched the chain in July to let people trade tokens, borrow and lend through applications connected to Ethereum, with plans for round-the-clock trading of tokens tied to stocks and funds
Every transaction pays a network fee, and the apps built on top charge their own fees for trades and loans. Robinhood keeps roughly nine-tenths of the network fees, according to a Bernstein note last month, meaning fewer transactions could reduce the fees it collects
The decline marks a change from September. When CoinDesk reported on Sept. 19 that fees had collapsed 97%, transactions were still near their highs and weekly trading volume was growing. Both have now turned lower
The number of active blockchain addresses also declined, averaging about 322,000 a day in the latest week, down 31% from mid-September. That suggests less activity, though it doesn't necessarily mean 31% fewer people are using the network. One person can control multiple addresses, and automated trading programs can generate thousands of transactions
Spot exchanges, where users buy and sell tokens directly, handled $7.45 billion during Oct. 2–8, down 21% from $9.46 billion the week before, according to CoinDesk calculations using DefiLlama. Uniswap, an app that lets people swap tokens with each other without a company in the middle, handled roughly 77% of that
However, the decline in trading doesn’t mean users are pulling their money out
Deposits in the chain’s lending and trading apps rose about 2% over the week to $1.04 billion, and the supply of stablecoins, tokens pegged to the dollar, ticked up to roughly $1.10 billion. That suggests the pile of money is simply being traded less, with traders keeping their funds on Robinhood Chain and waiting
One area is still growing, however: Trading in perpetual futures, which allow investors to bet on price movements without owning the underlying tokens
DefiLlama’s rolling seven-day figures on Friday showed about $7.35 billion in perpetual futures volume, contracts that let traders bet on prices without owning the tokens, up 26%
Robinhood and its partners have been trying to keep traders busy
Trading platform Arcus started handing out extra reward points on Oct. 1 for stock-token swaps made through Robinhood Wallet, and Robinhood pushed back the end of its fee promotion, which was due to expire Sept. 29
Robinhood will now pay the network fees on any swap over 50 cents made through its wallet until Dec. 31. That gives the chain under three months to get its $1 billion in deposits trading again before users start paying their own way
The bigger test will come when the promotion expires: Will customers continue trading at the same pace once they have to cover those transaction fees themselves?
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