Robinhood Chain launches with tokenized stocks, sparks dYdX selloff
DeFi & Yields ·
Robinhood's new Arbitrum Orbit layer-2 network went live carrying tokenized equities and on-chain perpetuals, while a related move by the dYdX team to build on the new chain instead of dYdX Chain triggered a sharp drop in DYDX.
Robinhood's stock rose 8.35% on the launch day, according to a post from KCEX_Official. The new chain supports tokenized stock trading across 120+ countries and offers on-chain perpetual contracts with zero fees for a 90-day period. Users can also access roughly 7% yield through Morpho, and the platform includes AI agent trading functionality. Uniswap, 1inch, Morpho, and Chainlink have all been integrated into the network, according to the same post.
The launch was accompanied by a separate development that unsettled part of the crypto community. The team behind dYdX built a new decentralized exchange called Arcus directly on Robinhood Chain rather than on dYdX Chain, the post said. That decision was interpreted by some in the community as a signal that the dYdX team was moving away from its own chain. DYDX fell more than 40% in a single day following the news.
A founder statement characterized the interests of the two projects as aligned, but the market reaction suggested otherwise, with the token's decline continuing despite the reassurance.
A separate account of the launch, corroborating the broader rollout, described Robinhood Chain as a dedicated blockchain and wallet built for non-US customers to trade real-world-asset tokens within decentralized finance, framing the effort as a way for Robinhood to apply its market capitalization and existing user base toward distributing synthetic assets on-chain. Robinhood's reach of 28 million funded accounts was cited across coverage as a structural advantage for driving adoption of the new chain's products, independent of how the dYdX situation resolves.
What remains unclear is how the relationship between dYdX and the new Arcus exchange will be structured going forward, and whether the DYDX price decline reflects a lasting shift in the token's role or a shorter-term reaction to the announcement. Also unresolved is how quickly tokenized stock trading volume and on-chain perpetual activity will materialize on Robinhood Chain once the zero-fee promotional period ends.