The Book · 27 Jul 2026
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Arbitrum

The L2 stack Robinhood Chain is built on — and takes a revenue cut from.

Data completeness
75%
Confidence
90%
Sources
3
Last reviewed
13 Jul 2026
The take

What to know

Arbitrum is the stack Robinhood Chain stands on and, unusually, a party that gets paid when the chain does well. Technically, Robinhood Chain is a dedicated Arbitrum chain — built on the Arbitrum stack (Orbit / Dedicated Chains, Nitro) and settling to Ethereum — which is what gives it Ethereum-grade settlement security, familiar EVM tooling and ~100ms blocks without Robinhood having to design a base layer from scratch. That choice is the quiet explanation for a lot of the chain's properties: the developer experience, the settlement model and the data-availability approach are inherited, not invented. The more interesting relationship is economic. Under the Arbitrum Expansion Program, any chain built with the Arbitrum stack that settles outside Arbitrum One routes 10% of its net protocol revenue back to the Arbitrum ecosystem — reported as 8% to the Arbitrum DAO treasury (controlled by ARB holders) and 2% to the Arbitrum Developer Guild. So Arbitrum is not merely a vendor; it is a revenue counterparty whose token holders have a direct claim on a slice of Robinhood Chain's economics, which is why ARB reacted to the chain's early volume. The position to take is that this is a genuinely aligned, and genuinely dependent, arrangement: Robinhood gets a battle-tested stack and Arbitrum gets a marquee revenue stream, but it also means Robinhood Chain's fortunes and Arbitrum's are now partly linked, and the 'net revenue' base of that 10% — after costs, on a chain still running launch subsidies — is the number that determines whether the revenue share is material or nominal in practice.

Best for

  • Understanding the technology and settlement model beneath Robinhood Chain
  • Assessing the Arbitrum Expansion Program revenue share and ARB's exposure to the chain
  • Context on why the chain behaves like a standard Arbitrum-stack L2

Watch out

  • The 10% share is on net protocol revenue — its size depends on costs and post-subsidy economics
  • Robinhood Chain's and Arbitrum's fortunes are now partly linked through the revenue share

The record

Key facts

The stack
Robinhood Chain is a dedicated Arbitrum chain built on the Arbitrum stack (Orbit / Dedicated Chains, Nitro), settling to Ethereum.· 90%§
Expansion Program revenue share
Under the Arbitrum Expansion Program the chain routes 10% of net protocol revenue to the Arbitrum ecosystem.· 88%§
Revenue split
Of that 10%, a reported 8% goes to the Arbitrum DAO treasury and 2% to the Arbitrum Developer Guild.· 82%§
Inherited properties
The chain's EVM tooling, ~100ms blocks and Ethereum settlement are properties of the Arbitrum stack rather than bespoke design.· 82%§
Market effect
ARB reacted to Robinhood Chain's early volume given its direct revenue claim on the chain.· 72%§

The timeline

History

  • 2026-07-01

    Robinhood Chain mainnet launches on the Arbitrum stack

    Arbitrum confirmed Robinhood Chain as a dedicated Arbitrum chain settling to Ethereum, live at mainnet launch.

  • 2026-07-01

    Expansion Program revenue share applies to Robinhood Chain

    Under the Arbitrum Expansion Program, Robinhood Chain routes 10% of net protocol revenue to the Arbitrum ecosystem (8% DAO, 2% Developer Guild).


Questions

FAQ

What is Robinhood Chain built on?
It is a dedicated Arbitrum chain built on the Arbitrum stack (Orbit / Dedicated Chains, Nitro) and settles to Ethereum, inheriting Ethereum-grade settlement, EVM tooling and ~100ms blocks.
Does Arbitrum earn revenue from Robinhood Chain?
Yes — under the Arbitrum Expansion Program the chain routes 10% of net protocol revenue to the Arbitrum ecosystem, reported as 8% to the DAO treasury and 2% to the Developer Guild.
Is there an Arbitrum token needed to use Robinhood Chain?
No. Robinhood Chain has no native token and gas is paid in ETH; ARB is Arbitrum's own governance token and is not required to transact on Robinhood Chain.

The graph

Connected entities

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