Robinhood Chain flips Hyperliquid – 2 metrics show speculative interest

The new Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) Robinhood Chain has surpassed Hyperliquid and BNB Chain in speculative interest. 

A week ago, Robinhood’s DEX volume (which tracks trading volume and broader speculative interest) was less than $10M. 

As of writing, the daily DEX volume has hit a record level of $600M, making it the fourth dominant chain in speculative activity. 

In the past two days, it has effectively surpassed BNB Chain and Hyperliquid on this front thanks to Robinhood’s CEO’s memecoin bet. 

As Robinhood Chain-based memecoins like CashCat [CASHCAT] went viral and posted massive gains, the FOMO attracted users and capital inflows. 

Robinhood’s memecoin frenzy sparks L2 debate

If the memecoin mania persists, it could surpass Base in DEX volume to become the third-largest place for speculative trading. 

Worth pointing out that Uniswap crossed $1B in volume on Robinhood Chain since launch, further underscoring how crazy the memecoin mania is on the new L2. 

But critics have been opposing the memecoin push. Most questioned the need for another Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) if its use case is risky memecoin speculation. The debate has since evolved to whether L2 growth benefits ETH’s value.   

For Bankless’ David Hoffman, L2s aren’t helpful to ETH. 

By now it seems more clear that L2s are largely independent blockchains and the vast majority of economics is not captured by ETH (by design).

Uniswap CEO Hayden Adam countered that most of the pairs on the chain are denominated in ETH and will eventually help burn more ETH, especially if the RWA narrative picks up momentum. 

Do Layer 2s actually help Ethereum?

The L2 roadmap has been under heavy criticism. With corporate chains such as Stripe’s Tempo, SWIFT, and more, the criticism has deepened. 

For lawyer Gabriel Shapiro, the entire roadmap was ‘poorly executed’ to benefit ETH value. 

The roadmap was just very poorly executed so that it’s mostly negative to ETH & leaves the L2s with too much optionality to become L1s, no real lock-in.

Ethereum’s best shot at scaling was through L2s, and recent upgrades have made them cheaper and attracted more traffic.

But this has also reduced the number of ETH burned, making the asset inflationary and denting its ‘store of value’ narrative. 

Whether the renewed L2 debate will drag ETH’s market sentiment and price remains to be seen. As of writing, Ethereum [ETH] traded at $1.8K, a key inflection point that could trigger the next leg of price recovery or another pullback. 

Final Summary

• Robinhood L2 has become the fourth largest on-chain place for speculative trading, flipping BNB Chain and Hyperliquid  
• Amid the hype, Ethereum L2s are under scrutiny again for being non-beneficial to ETH’s value