Memecoin trading on Robinhood Chain surged to $443 million in early September before collapsing by 96%, in a brief speculative wave that also drew in digital tokens designed to track individual companies’ share prices.
The blockchain, launched by Robinhood this summer, saw virtually no trading in memecoin-stock-token pairs in July. Activity rose sharply in September, according to CryptoQuant, but the burst proved short-lived.
The rush also prompted the creation of about 26,000 new tokens a day on the chain during September, with the daily total reaching almost 45,000 on September 8, according to Dune data. Most recorded little or no trading after launch and are now worth almost nothing.
Robinhood Chain was not the only new platform to experience a sudden surge. Arc, a blockchain launched in mid-September by Circle for Wall Street banks and other large institutions, recorded more than $336 million in trading volume from memecoin launchpads on its first day of public trading.
The developments reflect a familiar pattern in digital assets, in which newly launched blockchains and decentralised exchanges attract early attention through speculative token trading. Solana saw a similar episode in 2024 after the launch of Pump.fun, which allowed users to create and trade tokens within minutes.
At the height of that activity, TRON introduced SunPump as a rival launchpad. The resulting burst of trading activity subsequently dwindled to almost nothing.
Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, said the activity helped new blockchains and applications attract money and users, but was unlikely to last.
“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,” he said.
Jim Thorne, chief market strategist at wealth management firm Wellington-Altus, compared memecoin speculation to “trading Pokémon cards”. However, he said the underlying technology of tokenisation – turning assets into digital tokens that can be traded on a blockchain – was likely to endure.
“Memecoin trading is an unfortunate distraction [from] the power of tokenization,” Mr Thorne said.
The surge came as the US government considered new rules for the crypto industry. On September 15, the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, legislation that would have established nationwide rules for crypto markets.
Trading on Robinhood Chain and Arc increased over the following days. Mr Thorne said some traders had believed the failed vote could signal a return to a less regulated market.
“[It] was a short period where folks thought that we were going to go back to the wild, wild west after the Clarity Act failed,” he said.
The activity began to fade after the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a five-year exemption allowing certain platforms to test blockchain-based trading in tokenised shares under specific rules.
