Robinhood (HOOD) is challenging Coinbase's (COIN) dominance in the U.S. cryptocurrency market at a remarkable pace, a trend analyzed in depth by Joe Zhou of Foresight News.

Once seen as a traditional retail brokerage representative, Robinhood has now surpassed the veteran giant Coinbase on multiple core metrics, with its strategic focus shifting from simple asset custody to all-asset on-chain financial infrastructure, signaling a potential restructuring of power in the U.S. crypto industry.

The rise of Robinhood Chain can be described as phenomenal, with its trading activity and revenue-generating capacity achieving exponential leaps in an extremely short time.

In September alone, the network achieved $15.85 million in weekly revenue, a figure that not only surpassed the two top U.S. exchanges Coinbase and Hyperliquid but also demonstrated its powerful monetization capability.

From a trading volume perspective, the network's total transaction volume has now exceeded 750 million, showing extremely high user stickiness.

Notably, since Robinhood Chain officially launched on July 1, its development trajectory has been extremely steep: by the end of July, its cumulative on-chain transaction volume had surpassed 150 million, making it the fastest EVM chain network in history to reach 100 million transactions.

This explosive growth is not accidental but the result of resonance between its underlying architecture and user base, laying a solid data foundation for subsequent multi-dimensional expansion.

In the prediction market sector, Robinhood has found a core growth engine that surpasses traditional trading, and this segment has become the most vibrant part of its business map.

Data shows that in the second quarter, Robinhood's prediction market revenue already exceeded the combined revenue from its cryptocurrency trading and stock trading, establishing its position as one of the company's fastest-growing business segments.

CEO Vladimir Tenev explicitly pointed out that prediction markets are not only revenue contributors but also key variables driving user activity.

This optimization of business structure means Robinhood no longer relies solely on volatile spot trading fees but instead generates stable cash flow through highly sticky prediction contracts, thereby building a unique moat in a fiercely competitive market.

The stock tokenization business presents a complex picture of user scale advantage coexisting with TVL disadvantage, reflecting Robinhood's unique retail DNA.

Since its launch on July 1, Robinhood quickly attracted over 328,000 holders, capturing 44% market share, demonstrating its strong capability in acquiring C-end users.

However, the TVL (total value locked) of its stock token products is only $170 million, far lower than competitors Ondo and xStocks.

Despite temporarily lagging in asset scale, its massive user base provides enormous potential for future asset accumulation, indicating that Robinhood is committed to transforming financial products into standardized services for the mass consumer rather than serving only a few institutions or whales.

In the DEX and meme coin ecosystem, Robinhood has adopted a more aggressive strategy, successfully stimulating significant wealth effects.

Its related DEX trading volume is approaching $50 billion, and weekly revenue has also surpassed $10 million, forming a virtuous traffic cycle.

According to statistics, since August, more than six meme coins with market caps exceeding $100 million have been issued on the network, including PONS, Artificial Inu, CASHCAT, MEME, INDEX, and FAMI.

The rapid rise of these tokens has made Robinhood Chain one of the most important chain networks driving wealth creation in the current market upcycle.

PONS in particular saw its market cap approach $1 billion at one point, with weekly gains exceeding 200%, directly driving surges in network fees and DEX trading volume, validating the effectiveness of the "traffic-driven infrastructure" unconventional path.

This series of moves marks a fundamental reversal in Robinhood's strategy: transforming from a retail platform into an on-chain infrastructure provider.

Unlike Coinbase's path of gradually transforming from an independent cryptocurrency exchange into an "all-encompassing exchange," Robinhood was initially an ordinary trading platform for the masses and is now bringing more and more financial assets on-chain.

Vladimir Tenev once proudly stated that Robinhood Chain broke through the 100 million transaction milestone shortly after launch, becoming the fastest chain network in history to reach this milestone.

This is no longer a traditional brokerage company dabbling in cryptocurrency on the side but one striving to become a complete cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, with the ambition to redefine how financial assets circulate.

In the Layer 2 competitive landscape, the details of Robinhood Chain's revenue surge reveal its unique competitive advantages.

Over the past few years, leadership in Ethereum Layer 2 has changed hands multiple times, first Arbitrum, then Base, and now Robinhood Chain has become a new formidable contender.

After its mainnet launch on July 1, its daily fee revenue was only $200,000, but by early September, this figure once exceeded $4 million, and in the following week, on-chain fee revenue rose to approximately $25 million.

On September 1 alone, DEX daily trading volume reached approximately $1.595 billion, on-chain DeFi deposits were approximately $738 million, and the total stablecoin supply on the network was close to $800 million.

This leap from cold start to high activity in a short time proves the success of its user migration strategy.

According to data compiled by Woofun AI, Robinhood's business model restructuring is profoundly affecting its revenue logic.

As of the end of August, Robinhood had 28.6 million paying users and total platform assets of $38.37 billion.

In August, its notional cryptocurrency trading volume reached $17.5 billion, up 61% month-over-month; prediction market contract trading volume reached $4.7 billion, up 15x year-over-year.

This growth is not an isolated phenomenon but closely related to the rise of its proprietary chain.

Robinhood Chain's daily revenue climbed rapidly from less than $200,000 at the end of August to approximately $4.01 million on September 2.

This means Robinhood has, for the first time, its own dedicated on-chain trading venue, a development that could completely change its business model: previously relying mainly on trading fees and interest income, it can now obtain new revenue sources through diversified scenarios such as on-chain trading, lending, and liquidity provision.

Under comprehensive benchmarking, competition in prediction markets and stock tokenization is becoming increasingly intense.

In the second quarter of 2026, Robinhood's prediction market contract revenue reached $156 million, up 10x year-over-year, exceeding its cryptocurrency trading revenue of $100 million and stock trading revenue of $129 million; total net revenue reached $1.308 billion, up 32% year-over-year.

By comparison, Coinbase's prediction market contract trading volume and revenue grew 106% quarter-over-quarter in the second quarter, with annualized revenue exceeding $100 million.

In stock tokenization, Robinhood promotes its products in over 120 countries and regions, with 328,000 holders accounting for 44% market share, but the average holding amount is only $134, far below Securitize (SECZ) users' $4.9 million.

Meanwhile, Coinbase's cryptocurrency trading market share reached 10.3% in the second quarter of 2026, USDC stablecoin average circulating supply reached $20 billion, and subscription and services revenue reached $555 million.

This comparison highlights the fundamental differences between the two sides in user structure and asset preferences.

Looking ahead, the ultimate convergence of all-asset integration and new paradigms will become the industry's main theme.

On September 29, Robinhood announced a series of new product plans, including extending stock trading hours to weekends, launching perpetual contracts, adding prediction market products related to corporate earnings reports, and further launching AI trading agents.

If these features launch successfully, Robinhood's business model will completely transcend the definition of a traditional "brokerage company."

Meanwhile, 88% of Coinbase's net revenue in the second quarter of 2026 came from businesses unrelated to Bitcoin spot trading, and its subscription and services revenue also reached $555 million.

This shows that both companies are converging toward the same endpoint from different paths: Coinbase expanding from cryptocurrency toward the global financial system, while Robinhood penetrates from retail finance into on-chain markets.

Ultimately, whoever can provide a more seamless and efficient experience at this convergence point will dominate the financial landscape of the next decade.