Why Robinhood Chain Saw Memecoins Take Off Before Real World Assets

Summary

Johann Kerbrat, VP of Robinhood Crypto, defends the launch of Robinhood Chain despite memecoins dominating 85% of trading while real-world assets sit at 1%. He argues the permissionless design deliberately attracts early users and liquidity that will later support tokenized stocks and ETFs. He also explains the choice of Arbitrum for the chain, USDG as its stablecoin backbone, and a dedicated perps product, while remaining optimistic about broader regulatory acceptance of tokenized assets.

• Two weeks post-launch, Robinhood Chain has over $370M TVL but 85% of DEX volume is memecoins and only 1% is RWAs.
• Kerbrat says the chain was built permissionless to encourage developer activity, with memecoins being easier to launch early.
• He reaffirms that tokenized stocks and ETFs remain central to the long-term roadmap.
• Robinhood selected Arbitrum as its L2 for its developer familiarity and ecosystem tools.
• USDG was chosen for margin and lending due to its yield-sharing model that returns value to participants.
• A new perps product was built via a separate Lighter instance to provide a simple, unique user interface.
• Kerbrat expects the US and EU to gradually open more jurisdictions to tokenized assets.
• Robinhood's diversified revenue (11 lines above $100M) helps cushion crypto trading volatility.