Robinhood Network Transactions Fall 42%: What Happened to $1 Billion in Deposits?
Daily transactions on Robinhood Chain fell 42% from mid-September, while deposits in its apps remained above $1 billion and perpetual futures volume rose, revealing another side of the network’s slowdown.
According to CoinDesk’s calculations using growthepie data, Robinhood’s blockchain processed an average of 6.2 million transactions per day during the week of October 2–8. That was 42% below the average of 10.8 million for the week of September 10–16, while the decline from the previous week was 20%.
The number of daily active addresses also fell 31% from mid-September, to an average of 322,000. Because a single investor can use multiple addresses and bots can make many transactions, this decline cannot be interpreted directly as an equivalent loss of users.
Transactions fell, but deposits rose
Despite the slowdown, deposits in the network’s lending and trading apps rose about 2% week over week to $1.04 billion. The supply of dollar-tracking stablecoins on the network also climbed to about $1.10 billion.
By contrast, spot markets, where tokens are bought and sold directly, recorded $7.45 billion in volume from October 2–8. That was a 21% decline from the previous week’s $9.46 billion, with about 77% of transactions taking place through Uniswap. This points to weaker spot trading activity rather than a decline in the network’s total assets.
Perpetual futures moved in the opposite direction. In DefiLlama’s latest seven-day measurement on Friday, October 9, volume in perpetual futures contracts, which have no expiration date, rose 26% to about $7.35 billion.
Robinhood extends fee support through year-end
Daily network fees paid by users fell 39% from the previous week during October 2–8, to an average of $65,000. According to a September note from Bernstein, Robinhood receives about 90% of these fees; as a result, the decline in network fees also affects this revenue stream for the company.
Robinhood will continue to cover network fees for token swaps worth more than 50 cents made through its wallet through December 31. The promotion, which had previously been scheduled to end on September 29, was extended, while Arcus also began awarding additional reward points for stock token swaps made through Robinhood Wallet starting October 1.
Launched in July, the network offers token trading and lending on Ethereum-connected apps. The latest data shows that spot trading has yet to recover, even as incentives remain in place.