ArbitrumDAO Factsheet: Robinhood Chain Mainnet Launch

Announcements
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Robinhood Chain Mainnet Launch

  • Robinhood Chain went live on public mainnet on 1 July 2026, a dedicated Arbitrum chain settling to Ethereum, after a testnet that processed more than 200 million transactions.

  • The chain returns 10% of protocol net revenue under the Arbitrum Expansion Program (AEP) licence, with 8% flowing to the ArbitrumDAO treasury and 2% to the Arbitrum Developer Guild.

  • Classic Stock Tokens, Robinhood’s first-generation product, launched on Arbitrum One in June 2025 and remain available in the Robinhood Europe app. The new Stock Tokens run on Robinhood Chain.

What happened

Robinhood announced the mainnet at its London event on 1 July, five months after the public testnet opened. The testnet has processed more than 200 million transactions. Built with Offchain, the chain runs at 100ms latency through configurable block times and preconfirmations, uses Dynamic Pricing for predictable unit economics and provides throughput that holds during heavy market activity, with ETH as its gas token.

  • Stock Tokens are the core product. Robinhood has restructured them as tokenised debt securities, held in self-custody through the Robinhood Wallet, with 24/7 trading in more than 120 countries.

  • Trading runs on a dedicated Uniswap AMM, lending goes through Morpho and dollar liquidity comes from USDG, the Paxos-issued stablecoin.

  • Robinhood Earn, a lending product for eligible US customers, opened on the same stack at launch.

Revenue for the DAO

Arbitrum chains deployed outside of Arbitrum One pay 10% of protocol net revenue for using the technology. Of that 10%, 8% flows to the ArbitrumDAO treasury and 2% to the Arbitrum Developer Guild. Robinhood Chain settles to Ethereum, which puts it inside the licence’s scope.

The new Stock Tokens and Robinhood’s DeFi products run on Robinhood Chain. The DAO’s return from that chain is the 8% share of its protocol net revenue, which reaches the treasury through the AEP fee router and appears in the DAO’s regular financial reporting.

The Blueprint

Robinhood’s path runs from shared infrastructure to a dedicated chain. Classic Stock Tokens went live on Arbitrum One in June 2025 and Robinhood Chain reached production a year later. Each business that launches its own chain adds a licence line, scaling with that chain’s volume.

The launch is one example of how the platform adapts to what a business needs. Some come onchain to issue tokenised assets into existing markets. Others run a configurable environment for a particular use case, as LG Electronics is doing with onchain advertising. Robinhood built its own chain and that form is the one that settles beyond Arbitrum One - carrying with it the AEP fee.

Resources

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July 14, 2026 - Open Discussion of Proposals Governance Call
39th GRC Call - Recording & Transcript
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Great milestone for ArbitrumDAO and Robinhood. This launch highlights how the Arbitrum Expansion Program (AEP) can convert infra adoption directly into protocol revenue for the DAO treasury and the Developer Guild, via the 8% + 2% licence split on Robinhood Chain net revenue. The dedicated chain model moving from shared infra on Arbitrum One (classic Stock Tokens in 2025) to a bespoke L2 that settles to Ethereum also sets an important precedent for future institutional partners who need configurable environments but still want transparent onchain revenue flows back to a DAO.

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I’m a student learning about Arbitrum governance. The factsheet says 8% of Robinhood Chain’s net revenue goes to the DAO treasury through the AEP fee router. Is there a place where I can track these payments, on-chain or in the DAO’s financial reports? And beyond the revenue share, does the DAO have any say over how Robinhood Chain operates?

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Thank you for raising this excellent question @nate6711 , It’s a great one for anyone learning about Arbitrum governance and the practical implications of the Arbitrum Expansion Program (AEP).

1. Tracking the 8% revenue share

Yes, the payments are trackable both on-chain and through official reporting:

• On-chain: The 8% share of Robinhood Chain’s net protocol revenue is routed through the standardized AEP fee routercontracts (RewardDistributor + ChildToParentRouter system). These contracts automatically split the fees (90% retained by the chain operator, 10% to the Arbitrum ecosystem) and ultimately deliver the DAO’s portion to the Arbitrum Foundation-controlled address on Ethereum, which then flows to the DAO treasury.

• Official reporting: As noted in the ArbitrumDAO Factsheet on the Robinhood Chain mainnet launch, these funds “reach the treasury through the AEP fee router and appear in the DAO’s regular financial reporting.” You can follow them in the Arbitrum Foundation’s bi-annual progress updates (and any interim treasury or financial dashboards), where AEP / Expansion Program licence fees are broken out as a distinct income line. Third-party dashboards such as DefiLlama have also been tracking the contributions from Robinhood Chain.

2. Does the DAO have any operational say over Robinhood Chain?

No — beyond the revenue-share obligation, the ArbitrumDAO does not have formal governance or operational control over how Robinhood Chain is run.

Under the AEP terms, chains that settle outside Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova retain full control of their own governance, sequencer policy, fee parameters, upgrades, and day-to-day operations. There is explicitly no requirement to submit to shared governance with the DAO. The relationship is a licensing / revenue-share arrangement: the chain uses the Arbitrum technology stack and, in return, contributes 10% of net protocol revenue (8% to the DAO treasury, 2% to the Developer Guild).

In short, ARB tokenholders benefit economically from the success of chains like Robinhood Chain through the treasury, but they do not hold operational or constitutional authority over those chains.

This design prioritizes scalable economic alignment and growth while keeping the DAO focused on Arbitrum One, Nova, the core protocol, and treasury stewardship. Whether additional transparency measures (e.g., standardized public dashboards of AEP inflows by chain) would be valuable as this revenue line grows is an open and worthwhile discussion for the community.

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One small correction, ARB tokenholders DO NOT directly benefit economically from the success of chains as there isn’t any value accrual mechanism providing direct value to the token or tokenholders. With the SEC releasing guidance on Friday regarding staking and buybacks not making tokens a security, it is really up to the Arbitrum Aligned Entities (Offchain, Entropy, Foundation, etc.) to put forward a proposal to implement a value accrual mechanism.

The regulatory concerns there once was has been lifted now or reduced by the SECs announcement.

6

Thank you for the correction — this is an important and accurate distinction.

You’re right: there is currently no direct value-accrual mechanism (such as buybacks, burns, staking rewards, or distributions) that automatically channels treasury revenue to ARB tokenholders or the token itself. The 8% AEP share (along with other protocol revenue) flows into the ArbitrumDAO treasury, which is governed by ARB holders. Any economic benefit to tokenholders is therefore indirect and depends on how the DAO chooses to deploy those funds through governance.

I should have been more precise in my earlier wording. The more accurate framing is that ARB tokenholders benefit through governance control over a growing treasury rather than through any automatic or direct economic claim on the revenue.

On the regulatory point you raised: the recent SEC staff FAQs (issued September 25) do appear to reduce prior uncertainty around buybacks and certain staking structures on functional networks. As you noted, this potentially opens the door for Arbitrum Aligned Entities or community members to put forward proposals exploring formal value-accrual mechanisms, should the DAO wish to pursue them.