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{"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"fad72999-0333-41c3-9b6e-d408ac8ad690","kind":"publish","page_slug":"robinhood-chain","published_at":"2026-10-13T05:04:37.053Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Robinhood Chain","sections":[{"content":"Robinhood's developer documentation describes Robinhood Chain as a permissionless, Ethereum-compatible layer-2 blockchain for tokenized real-world assets such as equities and ETFs. It is built on Arbitrum Dedicated Blockchains, uses ETH as gas token, is fully EVM-compatible, supports ERC-4337 account abstraction, and uses first-come, first-served transaction sequencing. The ArbitrumDAO factsheet states that the public mainnet went live on 1 July 2026, five months after the public testnet opened, with 100ms latency, and that the chain pays 10% of protocol net revenue under the Arbitrum Expansion Program licence. Third-party explainers report that the chain launched without a native token and that the sequencer is operated by Robinhood; the Robinhood docs page retrieved did not itself describe the sequencer operator, so that point rests on secondary sources.","heading":"Overview and technical design","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Robinhood Chain documentation","type":"official","url":"https://docs.robinhood.com/chain"},{"credibility":2,"name":"ArbitrumDAO Factsheet: Robinhood Chain Mainnet Launch","type":"official","url":"https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/arbitrumdao-factsheet-robinhood-chain-mainnet-launch/31041"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Decrypt: What Is Robinhood Chain?","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/373351/what-robinhood-chain-ethereum-layer-2-network-tokenized-stocks?amp=1"}]},{"content":"The Robinhood docs list ecosystem integrations including Uniswap and Rialto (DEX/aggregation), Morpho (lending), Lighter and Arcus (perpetuals), Chainlink (oracles), Alchemy (RPC), LayerZero (bridge), Fireblocks and BitGo (custody), Paxos (USDG stablecoin), TRM Labs (compliance and risk), plus analytics and data providers (Entropy Advisors, Allium, CoinGecko, Zerion). The page states that inclusion does not constitute an endorsement or partnership and that Robinhood makes no representations about the safety or suitability of these protocols.","heading":"Ecosystem partners and disclaimer","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Robinhood Chain documentation","type":"official","url":"https://docs.robinhood.com/chain"}]},{"content":"DefiLlama's historical chain TVL series for Robinhood shows approximately $1.05 billion on 2026-10-13 (1,050,435,012 USD), after about $1.03 billion on 2026-10-09. The requester-supplied figure of about $605 million for Morpho Blue could not be re-verified from a primary source in this run (the DefiLlama protocol endpoint exceeded size limits) and is therefore not asserted here. Reports say the chain reached the top tier of DEXs by volume within two weeks of launch, with memecoins rather than tokenized stocks driving much of that volume; Pons V2 weekly volume was reported to have fallen sharply since mid-September 2026, and gas subsidies were reportedly scheduled to end at the end of September.","heading":"Value locked and activity","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"DefiLlama API: historical chain TVL, Robinhood","type":"on_chain","url":"https://api.llama.fi/v2/historicalChainTvl/Robinhood"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Forklog: Robinhood Chain climbs into DEX top three","type":"news_article","url":"https://forklog.com/en/news/robinhood-chain-climbs-into-dex-top-three-whats-behind-the-surge"},{"credibility":3,"name":"KuCoin Flash (MarsBit/TechFlow): Robinhood Chain rug pull scandal","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/robinhood-chain-rug-pull-scandal-53-projects-18-43m-stolen-in-2-months"}]},{"content":"On-chain analyst Wazz alleged that at least 53 memecoin launches on Robinhood Chain, mostly through the Pons V2 launchpad, were linked by fund flows and resulted in about $18.43 million in extracted liquidity over roughly two months; 45 of the 53 were reportedly connected on-chain. Alleged methods include same-name decoy contracts, anti-snipe exemptions for 70 to 200 operator wallets that could take 70% to 86% of supply, and recycling of proceeds into the next launch. The Block reported that it did not independently replicate the $18.43 million total, and one syndicated summary contains an internal figure inconsistency, so the totals should be treated as allegations from a single analyst. The coverage does not suggest Robinhood created, endorsed or took part in the launches. Most proceeds were reportedly bridged to Ethereum mainnet. See the linked pages robinhood-chain-rug-pull-syndicate and pons-v2-robinhood-chain-memecoin-extraction-ring for detail.","heading":"Alleged coordinated memecoin rug pulls","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"The Block: Onchain analyst links $18.4 million in Robinhood Chain memecoin extractions to single rug-pull operation","type":"news_article","url":"https://theblock.co/news/defi/2026-09-27-onchain-analyst-links-18-4-million-in-robinhood-chain-memecoin-extractions-to-single-rug-pull-operation-416960"},{"credibility":3,"name":"KuCoin Flash (MarsBit/TechFlow): 53 projects, $18.43M","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/robinhood-chain-rug-pull-scandal-53-projects-18-43m-stolen-in-2-months"},{"credibility":3,"name":"BrokerChooser: Coordinated Token Rug Pulls Worth $18.43 Million","type":"news_article","url":"https://brokerchooser.com/news/robinhood-chain-hit-by-coordinated-token-rug-pulls-worth-1843-million--a1f57400"}]},{"content":"Around late September 2026, GoPlus's security team reported a suspected fraudulent memecoin factory on Robinhood Chain with more than $9 million in trading volume across hundreds of tokens in 30 days, reportedly using Pons V2 contracts and many fresh wallets. The figure is gross volume, not confirmed investor losses, and the coverage states there is no evidence it is the same group as the earlier cluster. Separately, Bitquery was reported to have suspected wash trading in a sample of tokens; that claim was not independently verified in this run.","heading":"Second alleged memecoin factory flagged by GoPlus","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"Phemex: GoPlus exposes meme rug factory on Robinhood Chain","type":"news_article","url":"https://phemex.com/news/article/goplus-exposes-meme-rug-factory-on-robinhood-chain-with-9m-volume-98048"},{"credibility":3,"name":"RootData: GoPlus flags Robinhood Chain meme RUG factory","type":"research","url":"https://www.rootdata.com/news/771912"}]},{"content":"Decrypt reported that on 23 July 2026 attackers briefly took over the verified X account of Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev and promoted a fake token, Vladhood (VLAD), described as the official mascot of Robinhood Chain. Robinhood's communications team reportedly said the token was not authorized and that the account was secured. The same report mentions a CashCat holder who reportedly lost $56,000 to a compromised smart contract; it did not link that loss to the hijack. See vladhood-vlad-memecoin-scam.","heading":"Impersonation and account hijack (Vladhood)","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Decrypt: Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X account hacked to shill fake Vladhood token","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/374175/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenevs-x-account-hacked-to-shill-fake-vladhood-token"}]},{"content":"One analysis cited by search coverage flags a Robinhood-operated centralized sequencer and regulatory scrutiny of tokenized securities as risks. A community reply on the ArbitrumDAO forum (not an official statement) says the DAO has no governance or operational control over Robinhood Chain beyond the revenue share. Because the chain is permissionless for deployment, third-party tokens and protocols on it are not vetted by Robinhood, consistent with the docs disclaimer.","heading":"Centralization and governance considerations","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Decrypt: What Is Robinhood Chain?","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/373351/what-robinhood-chain-ethereum-layer-2-network-tokenized-stocks?amp=1"},{"credibility":3,"name":"ArbitrumDAO Factsheet and forum discussion","type":"community_report","url":"https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/arbitrumdao-factsheet-robinhood-chain-mainnet-launch/31041"}]}],"sources_used":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Robinhood Chain documentation","type":"official","url":"https://docs.robinhood.com/chain"},{"credibility":2,"name":"ArbitrumDAO Factsheet: Robinhood Chain Mainnet Launch","type":"official","url":"https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/arbitrumdao-factsheet-robinhood-chain-mainnet-launch/31041"},{"credibility":2,"name":"DefiLlama API: historical chain TVL, Robinhood","type":"on_chain","url":"https://api.llama.fi/v2/historicalChainTvl/Robinhood"},{"credibility":2,"name":"The Block: Onchain analyst links $18.4 million in extractions","type":"news_article","url":"https://theblock.co/news/defi/2026-09-27-onchain-analyst-links-18-4-million-in-robinhood-chain-memecoin-extractions-to-single-rug-pull-operation-416960"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Decrypt: Vladhood X account hack","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/374175/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenevs-x-account-hacked-to-shill-fake-vladhood-token"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Decrypt: What Is Robinhood Chain?","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/373351/what-robinhood-chain-ethereum-layer-2-network-tokenized-stocks?amp=1"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Forklog: Robinhood Chain climbs into DEX top three","type":"news_article","url":"https://forklog.com/en/news/robinhood-chain-climbs-into-dex-top-three-whats-behind-the-surge"},{"credibility":3,"name":"KuCoin Flash: Robinhood Chain rug pull scandal","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/robinhood-chain-rug-pull-scandal-53-projects-18-43m-stolen-in-2-months"},{"credibility":3,"name":"BrokerChooser: Coordinated Token Rug Pulls","type":"news_article","url":"https://brokerchooser.com/news/robinhood-chain-hit-by-coordinated-token-rug-pulls-worth-1843-million--a1f57400"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Phemex: GoPlus exposes meme rug factory","type":"news_article","url":"https://phemex.com/news/article/goplus-exposes-meme-rug-factory-on-robinhood-chain-with-9m-volume-98048"},{"credibility":3,"name":"RootData: GoPlus flags Robinhood Chain meme RUG factory","type":"research","url":"https://www.rootdata.com/news/771912"}],"summary":"Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum layer-2 network built on Arbitrum technology by Robinhood, aimed at tokenized real-world assets, with public mainnet reported live on 1 July 2026. Since launch, on-chain analysts and security firms have alleged coordinated memecoin rug-pull activity by third parties on the chain, and a hijacking of the Robinhood CEO's X account was used to promote a fake token; the sources do not suggest Robinhood created or took part in those launches. Related pages: robinhood-chain-rug-pull-syndicate, pons-v2-robinhood-chain-memecoin-extraction-ring, vladhood-vlad-memecoin-scam.","timeline":[{"date":"2026-02","event":"Public testnet opened (exact day not verified from a primary source; the factsheet says mainnet came five months later).","source":"ArbitrumDAO Factsheet","source_url":"https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/arbitrumdao-factsheet-robinhood-chain-mainnet-launch/31041"},{"date":"2026-07-01","date_evidence":"Robinhood Chain went live on public mainnet on 1 July 2026.","event":"Public mainnet launched, announced at a London event.","source":"ArbitrumDAO Factsheet","source_url":"https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/arbitrumdao-factsheet-robinhood-chain-mainnet-launch/31041"},{"date":"2026-07-23","date_evidence":"On Thursday, July 23, 2026, attackers briefly took over the verified X account of Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev.","event":"CEO's X account hijacked to promote fake Vladhood token.","source":"Decrypt","source_url":"https://decrypt.co/374175/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenevs-x-account-hacked-to-shill-fake-vladhood-token"},{"date":"2026-09","event":"Analyst Wazz publishes alleged link between 53 memecoin launches and about $18.43M extracted; GoPlus flags a second suspected memecoin factory.","source":"The Block","source_url":"https://theblock.co/news/defi/2026-09-27-onchain-analyst-links-18-4-million-in-robinhood-chain-memecoin-extractions-to-single-rug-pull-operation-416960"},{"date":"2026-10-13","date_evidence":"2026-10-13 | 1,050,435,012","event":"DefiLlama shows chain TVL of about $1.05B.","source":"DefiLlama API","source_url":"https://api.llama.fi/v2/historicalChainTvl/Robinhood"}]},"v":1}