According to Token Relations statistics, the trading volume of stock tokens issued by Robinhood on decentralized exchanges fell from $4.72 billion during the week of August 31 to September 6 to $1.84 billion from September 14 to 20, a decline of 61% from the peak week. Analysts suggest that the meme coin craze may be nearing its end, pointing to the Gas subsidies expiring at the end of September.

Robinhood Chain launched its mainnet on July 1, with approximately 90 days of subsidies covering eligible network fees in its own wallet, reducing minting and trading friction, set to expire around September 29. After the subsidies end, fees will need to be paid in ETH. A significant portion of on-chain trading comes from pairing meme coins with stock tokens: when minting memes, stock tokens are locked in a pool, and trading memes also counts towards stock token transactions. Initially, real-world assets accounted for a small portion of trading, but later, the average daily trading volume of stock tokens exceeded that of similar products on Solana.

Public data shows that there are about 95 stock tokens listed, quoted by oracles. Companies like Nvidia and GameStop appear at the top of the trading volume, but overall trading on the chain is still dominated by stablecoins, wrapped ETH, and memes. Within weeks of the mainnet launch, daily transaction counts reached tens of millions, with launchpads able to mint over ten thousand new coins in a single day. After peaking at around $8 million in daily fee income in early September, it significantly dropped over the next two weeks, with the decline in transaction counts being noticeably smaller than the drop in fees.

The subsidies target Robinhood wallet users, while some transactions from third-party wallets already pay full price. Analysts believe that after the subsidies end, cheap minting and high-frequency trading will cool down, which will negatively impact the trading volume attributed to stock tokens. Stock tokens can only be minted by authorized participants, and the on-chain circulating supply is small, with meme pools at one point accounting for a considerable proportion of on-chain liquidity for individual tokens, making it easier to deviate from reference stock prices during off-market periods due to limited minting and burning.

In terms of market mechanics, buyers are trading bots and launchpad users using subsidies to trade memes while also boosting stock token turnover, while sellers are Robinhood providing tokenization and sorting services. Funds flow from the subsidy budget to launchpad fees and market-making pools. The event is driven by the decline in weekly trading and expectations of subsidy expiration. Beneficiaries are platforms that can maintain demand for stock tokens even after subsidies end; those under pressure are minting factories relying on free Gas and trading volumes that count meme transactions as part of stock token narratives.

Management previously compared the daily fees of this chain with Ethereum and Base, stating that on-chain transactions do not count towards in-app crypto trading volume.

Source: Public Information