Robinhood Chain surpassed Hyperliquid in 24-hour decentralized exchange trading volume on July 8, a striking early milestone for the newly launched Ethereum Layer 2 as speculative activity rushed into one of the newest networks backed by a major U.S. brokerage.
According to DeFiLlama data cited by market reports, Robinhood Chain recorded roughly $560 million to $570 million in daily DEX volume on July 8, exceeding Hyperliquid’s 24-hour figure and briefly placing the chain among the most active DeFi trading venues by volume. DeFiLlama’s live dashboard later showed Robinhood Chain with more than $400 million in 24-hour DEX volume, reflecting the fast-moving nature of the metric.
The surge came about a week after Robinhood launched the public mainnet of Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum-compatible Layer 2 built using Arbitrum’s technology stack. Robinhood describes the network as a permissionless blockchain built for financial services and real-world assets, with tokenized stocks, 24/7 trading, self-custody and DeFi composability as central parts of its strategy.
The main driver of the volume spike was not tokenized equities, but memecoin speculation. Reports pointed to Cash Cat, a WETH-paired memecoin trading on Uniswap, as the largest catalyst. The token reportedly generated close to $100 million in 24-hour trading volume and briefly reached a market capitalization above $100 million, drawing liquidity and arbitrage activity to the new chain.
Memecoin Frenzy Drives Early Adoption
Robinhood Chain’s rapid rise shows how quickly DeFi activity can migrate when a new network combines strong brand recognition, major infrastructure partners and speculative incentives. Uniswap is already live on the chain, giving traders a familiar venue for token swaps and creating an immediate liquidity layer for new assets.
The volume surge also highlights a recurring pattern in crypto market structure. New chains often gain early traction not through institutional use cases or carefully designed financial products, but through volatile retail assets that attract high turnover. Memecoins can generate large trading volume quickly because they are easy to launch, simple to understand and heavily driven by social momentum.
That dynamic creates both opportunity and risk for Robinhood. High DEX volume gives the chain visibility and can attract builders, liquidity providers and market makers. But if activity is dominated by thinly traded speculative tokens, it may not translate into durable adoption for Robinhood’s core thesis around tokenized real-world assets and onchain finance.
The comparison with Hyperliquid is also important. Hyperliquid has become one of DeFi’s most successful trading venues, particularly in perpetual futures, with deep liquidity, high-frequency trading activity and a dedicated user base. Robinhood Chain surpassing it on a 24-hour DEX volume metric is notable, but it does not yet mean Robinhood has matched Hyperliquid’s sustained liquidity, derivatives infrastructure or trader retention.
Robinhood Pushes Deeper Into Onchain Finance
The milestone comes as Robinhood accelerates its broader crypto strategy. The company has been expanding tokenized stock access for international users, building onchain infrastructure and positioning crypto as a core part of its global financial-services roadmap. Its official launch announcement said Robinhood Chain is intended to provide a turnkey environment for builders and is natively connected to Robinhood’s onchain users.
For Robinhood, the strategic opportunity is to convert its mainstream brokerage brand into blockchain-native distribution. Unlike most new Layer 2 networks, Robinhood already has a large retail user base, regulated financial-services infrastructure and a recognized consumer brand. If it can connect those advantages with DeFi liquidity, tokenized assets and self-custody products, it could become a meaningful competitor in onchain markets.
Regulatory and reputational risks remain. Tokenized stocks, memecoin trading and open DeFi activity all sit in areas that can attract scrutiny, especially when linked to a brokerage known to retail investors. Robinhood will need to manage the gap between permissionless blockchain activity and the consumer-protection expectations attached to its brand.
For now, the July 8 volume spike is best viewed as an early market signal rather than proof of long-term dominance. Robinhood Chain has shown that it can attract significant trading activity almost immediately after launch. The harder test will be whether that activity persists once the memecoin cycle cools and whether the chain can shift volume toward tokenized assets, lending, stablecoins and other financial applications with more durable demand.
Robinhood Chain’s brief lead over Hyperliquid shows that the boundary between retail brokerage and decentralized trading is narrowing. The next phase will determine whether that convergence produces sustainable onchain finance or simply another short-lived liquidity boom.
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