Robinhood's new blockchain was built for stocks — memecoins and scam tokens got there first

Robinhood launched its own blockchain on July 1, pitched as a place to trade tokenized versions of companies like Apple and Nvidia. Two weeks in, almost none of the activity is doing that. Cat-themed memecoins dominate the trading, the network already rivals bigger chains by volume, and a separate warning says some newly bought tokens are vanishing from wallets entirely.

First, what it is. Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum “layer-2” — a faster, cheaper network that still settles onto Ethereum and uses ETH to pay fees. Robinhood built it to host “stock tokens,” on-chain versions of shares that trade around the clock (and, oddly, are barred to U.S. users while available in more than 120 countries).

But the numbers tell a different story. Genuine real-world assets on the chain add up to only about $12.8 million, while a memecoin called CASHCAT — named after Robinhood's old mascot — reached roughly a $156 million market value after surging 2,158% in a week. The chain drew around 800,000 addresses and $3.1 billion in decentralized-exchange volume in seven days, at one point processing more daily transactions than Coinbase's Base chain. It echoes what happened to Base in 2023: speculation first, durable uses (maybe) later.

Then there's the warning. Cross-chain service Relay flagged that some buyers on Robinhood Chain saw tokens disappear from their wallets right after purchase — scam tokens designed to remove themselves once bought. Relay says the money spent is gone, and that this was not a stolen-key hack, since other balances were untouched. It is blocking such tokens as they appear.

Why can this happen? Because the chain is “permissionless.” Anyone can create and list a token on Robinhood Chain without Robinhood's approval, so third parties spin up coins around the brand. That openness is normal in crypto, but it means a familiar name on your screen is no guarantee of safety.

For a beginner, the lesson isn't “avoid Robinhood.” It's that a trusted brand on the box doesn't vouch for what's inside a permissionless chain. Read what you're signing before you approve a purchase, be wary of tokens with no track record and an explosive chart, and treat “it works great for memes” as a description of risk, not an invitation. Robinhood's own CEO said assets without utility don't last — even as he went and followed the cat coin's account.