Robinhood Chain's daily NFT trading volume reached a staggering $3.13 million, more than doubling Ethereum's $1.35 million. It’s a surprising achievement for an Arbitrum-based Layer 2 chain that launched less than two months ago in July. The excitement intensified after digital artist Beeple posted a meme claiming 'Robinhood Chain saved NFTs,' which was then shared by Robinhood co-founder Vlad Tenev.

This surge in volume was driven by the sell-out of the 'Spritehood Whips' collection, led by a co-founder of Pudgy Penguins, Cole Villemain, and 'StonkBrokers,' an NFT project with a unique structure where NFTs contain stocks that pay dividends. StonkBrokers, in particular, has become central to the utility NFT narrative, with its floor price jumping over 10x in just one month.

However, digging into the on-chain data, things aren't entirely rosy. While transaction counts and TVL have soared, the number of daily active addresses remains stagnant. This suggests that rather than a massive influx of retail users, we are seeing high-frequency trading by a small number of heavy users or bots. The fact that 43% of the stablecoins on the chain are tied up in Ethena's USDe further supports this.

Furthermore, there are concerns regarding regulatory circumvention. Users in restricted regions like the U.S. are accessing tokenized stock assets directly via personal wallets, posing a risk of future regulatory scrutiny. It’s an interesting trend to watch—whether this is the true revival of retail or just short-term FOMO haha.

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