Source: Fortune
Summary
Rocketing memecoin trading on Robinhood Chain saw daily volume hit $443 million in September, but dropped 96% soon after. The platform saw 26,000 new tokens daily, most of which lost value. Circle also launched Arc, a blockchain for Wall Street, which saw $336 million in memecoin trading on its first day. Experts say the trend is unsustainable, with most memecoins likely to lose value. The surge coincided with uncertainty over U.S. crypto regulation, including the failed CLARITY Act.
Our Reading
The numbers tell one story.
Rocketing volume on Robinhood Chain hit $443 million in September, then collapsed.
26,000 new tokens launched daily, most with no value.
Circle’s Arc saw $336 million in memecoin trading on its first day.
Experts say it’s a short-term bubble, not a sustainable trend.
Author: Evan Null
Memecoin Trading Surges on Robinhood Chain
Robinhood Chain, launched by the fintech giant, saw a surge in memecoin trading in September. The platform experienced a spike in activity involving tokens inspired by cats and other internet memes, as well as stock tokens designed to track individual companies’ share prices. The surge in trading activity was significant, with daily trading volume reaching $443 million in early September.
However, the surge was short-lived. Trading activity on Robinhood Chain fell 96% after reaching its peak. The platform also saw a wave of token creation, with about 26,000 new tokens launched each day in September. On September 8, the daily total of new tokens reached nearly 45,000. Most of these tokens achieved little or no volume after launch, and are today worth almost nothing.
Robinhood Chain wasn’t the only platform to see a recent surge in trading activity. Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, launched Arc, a blockchain built for Wall Street banks and other large institutions to move money and trade digital assets. On its first day open to public trading, memecoin launchpads generated more than $336 million in trading volumes on Arc.
These launches echo a familiar crypto pattern in which new blockchains and decentralized exchanges see memecoin speculation drive attention, retail interest, and early trading volumes. Solana offered one of the clearest examples in 2024 with Pump.fun, a platform that lets users create and trade tokens within minutes. At the height of that craze, TRON, the blockchain founded by Chinese entrepreneur Justin Sun, rolled out SunPump, a rival launchpad. Inevitably, though, the flurry of activity quickly subsided to almost nothing.
According to experts interviewed by Fortune, these newer blockchains are experiencing their own memecoin boom—and the outcome may not be much different. Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, said it’s a way for blockchains and/or new apps to attract money/activity into them, but it is not sustainable. Most of these assets/memecoins will trend to zero.
