The Past, Present and Future of Robinhood Chain

Transcript

Hey everybody. Um, I'm glad we still have a few people here right now. Uh, I know it's getting late. Dinner's coming. We'll try to make this as interesting as possible so that you have, uh, used your time wisely. Let's step right into it. So, Robin Hood chain launched on the 1st of July of this year. here. And I think that a lot of people were wondering, is this going to be one of those uh 5day kind of change where everything's really hot for a minute or is it going to be something that actually has legs? Something that uh is maybe the next, you know, the next thing where retail goes, the next thing maybe where uh institutional goes. And I'm curious before you guys actually get into I I don't even want you to introduce yourself yet. I just want to like step right into it. Did you guys expect the

success and the and the usage that we're seeing right now in Robin Hood to happen or were you thinking this was going to be a waste of time? Um, to be honest, I wasn't expecting it, but when it did happen, it made sense in hindsight. Robin Hood wasn't going to put their name on something if it wasn't going to go uh right, if it if it wasn't going to be 100%. So, I think they did a good job of being neutral uh curating the right environment for builders to come and for having new primitives such as stock tokens, which a lot of builders were able to create some fun experiments around which we're seeing and I think we'll continue to see more of.

>> And Carl, were you there on day one or did you wait for some time? No, absolutely. Uh, as someone who's been a trader for a long time, I think there is always value in being early and being willing to try things out before other people. Obviously, didn't know it was going to explode to the degree that it would, but I thought it was an incredible opportunity. Right. Robin Hood is a great brand. They've really helped bring retail uh into stocks and into just generally having more financial opportunity. And so, you know, building off of that brand and having a chance to integrate it with this crypto world that we we know and love so much, it was a great opportunity and it had to be there. Yeah.

>> And and Grayson, you guys made a bet basically from the beginning, right? You were there on day one. Is that right? >> Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I think there's going to be a couple different work streams going on at Robin Hood that same time. I think the earn product that Robin Hood brought into the main app, like I think we really thought that was going to be successful and that has certainly been the case. I think uh I think you know the Morpho vault that is kind of hooked into Robin Hood has roughly over over $500 million of stable coins in it right now. So massively successful. Um I think we saw that coming given that I think the Robin Hood um kind of tradi version of that which is kind of hooking into like money market funds on the back end. I think

that has like you know 30 billion roughly um of deposits into that. So we thought this earn product is going to be killer. That's going to bring a ton of capital into the ecosystem. That's going to be a big accelerant for Robin Hood chain. I think what we weren't expecting ahead of launch um was so much traction on the launchpad and the stock tokens so quickly. Uh before launch I think we were we spent time think thinking a lot about you know where's this initial demand where's initial supply going to come from a lot of these stock tokens. Um so different ideas but very quickly we saw like really interesting dynamics taking off between you know launchpad stock tokens and we saw these markets kind of bootstrap themselves organically very quickly uh across a lot of tickers a lot of names um and so that has been

like you know a really a really cool thing to see >> so it's been profitable for unis swap I guess right >> I mean it's been it's been great for the ecosystem a lot of volumes a lot of lot of fees for LPs um yeah >> good to hear and as as someone who's talking about things all the time, you know, you're a content creator, you're an investor, these sort of things. How long did it take you to get into the Robin Hood space and or were you there like immediately? >> I was a couple weeks late and big part of it at the time, heart of the bare market. Everything was slow on chain. So, it was the first cash cat leg up. As soon as it started to break above that 810 mil area and started to blow up that night, I was like, "Okay, wait, what's

happening here?" I didn't even really realize that Robin Hood chain had launched at that point. Um, but then as soon as that happened, it just made sense. There's no way that I saw that Robin Hood could have a chain and not have insane levels of traction. So, just went dove head first straight into the ecosystem, straight into the trenches, and still incredibly bullish on everything with the growth moving forward. >> It surprised me a lot, too. And I think that that one thing people didn't expect, one thing I certainly didn't expect was for something like Pawns to come out, right? Pawns is is a launchpad. You can tell us about it in a minute, but for it to come out in what

within a couple of weeks flip the revenue of literally everybody, right? Like how did that happen? >> Well, I mean, the the Pond's origin story is pretty interesting. So, originally uh on Robin Hood chain from day one, we weren't there, right? I was there as a retail user. A lot of my friends were there as retail users as well, but there was an existing launchpad and they were they were called Knoxa. Um, and actually pawns, it's Latin for bridge. Um, and what we had built was a bridge to access the Noxa token as it was hosted on DBank chain, which wasn't something that I personally had a lot of experience with. uh you know it seems like there was some kind of internal conflict there that led to a shutdown and we really decided this was an opportunity to seize a unique moment

and here really all of the credit goes to Azie uh me god I'm sure you guys have seen him on Twitter but he spent I think 13 hours straight overnight did not sleep made it so that we could be first to market um and be in a position where we could kind of take over that mantle >> so just for clarity so noa was was first Right. >> Noxa had some kind of fight. They made loads of cash. >> They screwed the pooch. They they they dropped it and you guys stepped up like a minute and a half later. >> Yeah, absolutely. And I think uh we were in a great position to do so because, you know, myself and a lot of other people on the team have spent a lot of time building trust and connectivity throughout the general crypto ecosystem.

And we were able to provide, you know, a trusted avenue for people to launch tokens from and always, you know, tried to be developer first, community first. And I think those those are the factors at the end of the day that led to us being big. >> From my understanding like most bigger projects are launching off there. And I want I'm wondering Dave, did you guys actually launch on ponds too? >> Yeah, we launched on ponds as well. Uh and I think the reason why ponds was so successful is how they set out their creator fees. Uh it's 1% 70% of that goes to the creative themselves. The other 30% is burned. That is incredibly egalitarian. And that is the same way at UFG at United Founders Group. We built I kind of view ponds as the launchpad layer. But after launch, that egalitarian infrastructure still needs

to be built up. And that's what we've built up with this immeable treasury where every token has backing because attention only lasts for so long. It's like, oh, you get all this hype, but if you have no way to store it, what good is it? Your token just dies. And so at UFG United's founders group, we actually built a battery and in a month alone, we have 78 ETH in our treasury just from trading fees. And that gives us a lot stronger position to actually go build internal strategies to actually go and preach this sovereign treasury to other projects that may want to have their own. So it's a really exciting time to build on Robin Chain and I really don't think there's a better place to do it.

>> Gotcha. And and Cleo since you're like really really kind of rooted in the culture like would you say that like like just colloquially from my side I it feels like there's a little bit of PTSD and it's you know from uh from some other chains um and and how they kind of handle investments that they make. But are you seeing the same thing on Robin Hood or uh do you think it's better? Do you think it's worse? >> I I think there's a lot of potential with where it is right now, right? Like a huge part of what's happening right now with these launchpads and why they've taken off is because they're the rails for culture within the chain itself. >> I really like that.

>> And you know, one of the things that people give memes a hard time for is that, you know, they're transient ideas. They can be there for one second, fade the next. But I I think Bitcoin itself, everything in crypto comes back to the core thesis that ideas and belief have value. And at the end of the day, what the memes have done is bring people to the chain, bring users. If you look at the volume that's happening on the chain right now, the RWAs, the innovation, everything else right now, it is from the Rails that they've built. Um, and I I still think we're so early with that.

And one thing that I think that Robin Hood needs to do as a whole is lean more into that. Realize that the retail that is here right now is what brings in the business side of it, right? Like users come from culture. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I think that makes a lot of sense. So, so I do want to get into the future and maybe what they could do better. But first, just since you brought up the numbers, I think more than likely, Grayson, you're going to have [snorts] a pretty good insight here into how much like what kind of numbers are we talking about? >> Yeah, I mean, uh, and maybe like a lot of the numbers are going to be, you know, somewhat trading based since that's t, you know, t that's what we that's what I tend to be looking at all

the time. I mean, I think Robin Hood chain has done roughly hundred billion dollars of, you know, spot decks volume to date. Um, that is a ridiculous amount. I think there was uh a week in September where that was $50 billion in a single week. Um and it's still been really really strong. I think unis swap is doing around a billion dollars a day over the past [snorts] few days. >> Sorry, you said billion with a B, right? >> Yeah, billion with a B. Doing really good, you know, doing really strongly and and stock tokens are a big part of that. Uh even right now, uh stock tokens are doing around hund00 million a day on the AMM. I think a few months ago there was no example. There was no there was no stock tokens trading in AMM's you know hardly at any size uh before Robin

Hood chain. So uh this has been this has been huge. Yeah. >> Oh okay. So so if I'm if I'm kind of taking what everyone said we're kind of in the beginning still. It looks like it's still the frontier but we're doing a billion dollars a day of volume. >> Yeah. I think you know people are starting to notice. I mean you start to see things like you know the launchpads pawns you know pairing stock tokens and you know over the weekend when you can't mint these stock tokens you're starting to see abnormal things happen on chain you know that leads to things happening offchain like it's starting to make a you know a real impact >> so just from a trading perspective like are people too late do you think I mean does anyone have an opinion about are people too late are they early are we in

the middle like what what >> I don't know maybe maybe somewhere in the middle um but I think like all this activity on Robin Hood chain um has like really built we you know we we we we've we've built really strong liquidity in the process and like today it's really good for servicing games in the future. Uh this allows you know folks like unis swap, folks like Robin Hood to go out to new distribution platforms you know where you know maybe maybe it's in jurisdictions where it's a little harder to get access to US equities. Well, now we can offer, you know, onchain solutions to do that that that brings new capital. That capital, you know, brings activity into the ecosystem. That activity, you know, helps spark further use cases like, you know, launchpads.

And so it's it's all very circular. Um, so it's like, you know, via memes and launchpads, we've been able to like bootstrap, you know, very durable markets that we can apply to like non-speculative use cases as well. So, >> gotcha. And on the pawn side, what kind of stuff is being launched mostly? Is it entirely memes? Is that sort of the I mean I know there's UFG obviously it's not a meme. >> No, I mean what we've seen recently in terms of trends and in terms of you know real longevity on the launchpad has been a lot of tech enabled and tech linked tokens. And I mean frankly my best trading days were that AI meta. So it's something that I personally love to see.

Um but there's really really great tokens like UFG for example. Uh the team at Orbio is building a really interesting inference market. Uh the team at Bun for example is building technology to help developers launch tokens and manage a treasury through AI as well. And I think these are, you know, some of the things that are happening alongside the stock tokens that Grayson's talking about, right? Uh stock tokens can kind of create really interesting opportunities for reflexivity and they are a novelty product and always when you see a novelty product, there's a lot of activity and attention. Like from the Launchpad side, something that we see a lot is every time we list a new stock token pairing, there's a flurry of activity around it. And like Grayson had been talking about with, you know,

weekend trading and deping and things of this nature, it's something that we're actually working really hard to avoid having happen because whenever a token DPEGs, it creates a crash game like scenario for the traders, right? At some point, somebody is going to go and mint more of that stock token to make it so that we return the LP paired tokens return to par. And this is a really negative experience for traders at the end of the day because we obviously want a future in which people can feel confident holding for multiple days, right? And feel confident investing in great teams and working together with them. And you know, as as COO, a lot of my role is focused on getting in touch with these teams, helping them build, helping them launch on ponds. And with

V3, there's going to be a lot of innovation focused on, you know, being trader first, but also being developer first and continuing to build on that. And whenever you say reflexivity, sorry, could you just I mean I think I know what you mean, but can you elaborate on what the good and bad of that is and what it means really? >> Uh at the end of the day, right, the the LP on the other side of the the token uh is denominated in a stock token. And so a great example of this is in our early days, there was a few very popular coins that launched when we added the the DJT pair, the Trump media. And so with that, um DJT at one point was trading on Robin Hood chain, I think, at three times par value. So, three times what it trades for in the open normal stock market.

Because of this, um, a lot of those tokens did really well in the short term, but this was this was over the weekend. Monday came back around and people were able to, you know, bridge back onto Robin Hood chain and bring that stock liquidity over from other venues. And as soon as that happened, the price of all these coins, you know, it was 3x went 1/3 because of the the reduction in, you know, LP size. And obviously as a trader that's that's not something that you want to engage with. And for a lot of people if they aren't paying attention this can lead to really negative outcomes. And so we're we're really focused on trying to you know protect our users and help create wealth effects at the end of the day.

>> Okay. Got it. And are you guys utilizing some of this the hook stuff? First off I'm going to ask you in a minute Grayson what in the world that means because I think I have a rudimentary understanding but you know it might be helpful. But are you guys utilizing some of that technology? >> Yeah absolutely. you know uh unis swap uh v4 has become really really important to you know how we operate this business and it's also you know the hooks and and the v4 technology is a big part of how we're innovating around v3 actually it's very important uh to this team to create you know net new I'd say games and opportunities for traders and builders and that's how we're going to be able to differentiate ourselves right I think with pawns there was this very clear progression where v1 was a a product

that was vibe coded in 13 or so hours overnight and our real focus there was just you know something that works something where you know we're first to market and we're in this position. V2 I think very much brought us up to par uh from a technology perspective with a lot of the other leading launchpads in the system and you know V3 and forward is where we're going to have a chance to to get to really innovate and build net new things and and obviously unis swap uh v4 and and the hooks are a big part of that. Yeah. I mean I mean I feel like hooks you hear about it all the time but it's almost like ZK snarks you know it's like you hear the word but not exactly have any clue what that means and so maybe like in 20 seconds Grayson if you

could say like what the heck is a hook? >> Uh a hook is just like a a normal unis swap pool except uh being able to add arbitrary code somewhere in the swap flow. Um and so you can really create all sorts of custom AMM markets with hooks. We're seeing things from, you know, Launchpad based hooks like like like what Ponza is using to you know like optimize how fees are handled and and like how you know customize the fee structure. We're seeing things like custom you know dexes so like dexes that are you know you know somewhat separate from unis swap but still built on unis swap and still benefit from a lot of the network effects that come from unis swap. on Robin Hood chain, you know, Fables is a prominent example who's doing a lot of volume. And then we're seeing things like even like video games

being built on V4. And I don't even know how that works, but I'm seeing this on the timeline, so it's like quite interesting. Um, so I think prior to, you know, unis swap v4 and and thus hooks were launched in January of 2025. And so they've been out for more than a year and a half. Um, and I think we had a challenge where people didn't really fully understand didn't fully understand hooks. I think it was like a novel concept. Um, and it like it really took Robin Hood chain for people to understand. I think people realize, wow, like there's there's real businesses in building you real businesses are being created, you know, built on hooks. Uh, there's a lot of room for innovation here. And I think the genie is out of the bottle now. Now every now everyone knows um and Robin Hood chain you know

being an ecosystem where builders felt empowered to build businesses uh is kind of like you know a big part of what it took to make you know make it a you know a wide you know widescale success. So >> okay well look that wasn't 20 seconds or less. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> But it's okay. No worries. Thank you very much. >> Yeah. >> Dave I remember offline you said something about it being the first time in uh five years that you're excited and and Yeah, >> I'm I'm not really like why? >> Yeah, I think uh Crypto Cleo said it well uh with Launchpads being these rails of culture. Um and at the end of the day, what are we creating? We're creating we're all storytellers and the best tokens and the best communities are the ones that are able to create this

shared story that you can buy into long term. And I think Robin Hood chain because of the way they positioned themselves and invited builders in to basically create the story alongside them. They didn't go top down say like, "Hey, this is what we're going to do. these are the winners. No, people wrote the stories themselves. And this is a core part part of my lore building thesis is you need the community to tell your their the story. And if you do that, that's how you win. And that's you how you build long term. And I feel like back in 2020 and 2021 during DeFi summer, that was being done on Ethereum mainet. That was being done with all the DeFi games, all the NFT games, even Dows. And for a long time, uh there was just a lull. And yeah, you had like financial nihilism on Salana back in

2024. And that was a very negative story. That's very PvP story. But now I think we're seeing this PVE story emerge on Robin Hood again. And I think that's going to as uh Carl said create more long-term wealth effects. >> Got it. It makes sense. I think if you think about Robin Hood like like if think about the future now, we'll kind of move on to that. I'm I'm curious what could Robin Hood do to to do better here. Um they just had a summit recently as you guys know about a week ago in Houston, Texas. Um, and a lot of people were were a little bit disappointed at not hearing anything about the chain really, you know, they they they heard about a few products here and there, but not really much about the chain. Was that a fumble or like is there an opport

like what happened here? Like like you know what should we Ko maybe let us know. >> So I was at the summit and actually one of the things I'm most bullish about right now is how much momentum Robin Hood chain has had so far has been really without them pushing anything. And you go to a conference like the Hood Summit and it was really it was a great conference. It was beautifully put together, very impressive. You know, they show how much long-term vision they have and I think that's what attracts a lot of the retail users to Robin Hood and why it's been the home for retail for stocks for a long long time. The only thing though is I look at it and I'm like, man, how much more bullish

will it be when they do lean in? Um because right now I think if I you know could change one thing from their side is again lean into it a little bit more. You know it it is something where I feel like even mentioning how much momentum and how much innovation has happened so far in something like that has a massive effect as far as continuing that catalyst forward. and they have that opportunity and I you know again I think that there is going to be a continued natural inflow just based on their brand name and their presence. Um but they have the opportunity to just seize this growth and bring both retail and

business into it and you know like they need to lean into it. Well, look, I mean, frankly, they're leaning so not into it at the moment that their competitor, Coinbase, listed pawns before they did, right? Like that that was very surprising to me. Carl, how did you land on that? You know, how do you feel about that? >> Look, I mean, I I think [clears throat] at the end of the day, and this is someone who has, you know, worked in traditional finance in the past. I was at JP for a bunch of years. Within these large companies, there are always hurdles, right? And and some of these hurdles are legal. They're compliance-based. And I think at the end of the day there's it's hard right if you don't have this experience of listing uh crypto tokens outside of you know majors and L1's um like

>> no no because they listed cash cap they listed cash cap >> you know pure meme versus uh you know something that that is a little bit different right obviously I think with uh our buyback and burn uh thesis and feature this is something that really enables uh our community and our users to participate in the success of ponds and hopefully in the you know continued success uccess of Robin Hood chain. I I can understand a little bit, right? At the same time, was I a little shocked? Absolutely. Um, but I think they're in a position where they can continue to add new features, continue to innovate.

Something that I'm really looking forward to is, you know, more stock token pairings. I think uh when it comes to memes and the things that people like to launch, there's so many great opportunities. Like, I mean, top of mind for me is some kind of wage coin with McDonald's stock. You know, I'm surprised we we don't have McDonald's on chain yet, but I think I think there's a lot of fun still to be had and and I will say, you know, to their credit, uh they've been they've been excellent, uh when it comes to communicating with us, you know, uh they're very easy, at least for us to get a hold of. >> You are talking to them? >> Yeah. Oh, actively all the time. Um they're they're very responsive. You know, we were we're able to ask them questions. We're able to work with them.

You know, this stock token request is something that has already already been communicated to them. This isn't new news. Um but yeah, no it's really really great team, great people over there and a pleasure to work with. Yeah, >> got it. And and Grayson, given that you are in growth at Uniswap Labs, right? That >> you guys have thought about growth. How much can this grow according to your own internal estimates? I mean, you know, I don't like [laughter] I don't know where the ceiling is, but I think like one thing we have to look forward to, you know, kind of building off what these guys said is that um like the two environments, you know, Robin Hood, the main exchange, the core app, the chain are still pretty separate today and yet we've seen all this traction. uh the main link between the

todos is today. The main the main link between the two today is probably the earn product and you know you know a couple listings here and there maybe cash and maybe they'll do some more in the near future but I think as we get more kind of D5 CFI integrations like that is going to be a lot of gas on the fire that I think we have to look forward to. Um like you know the whole gambit of D5 primitives I think um you know I think hopefully we'll see we'll see the you know more integrations there. I think that's that's going to be really big. Uh >> when you say DeFi primitives like you're thinking like like what like like oh forks or like what do you like >> I think all sorts of uh I think you know today it's simply lending in the uh it's

just simply lending stable coins in into morpho you know what if you could borrow against your stock tokens what if you could trade uh through decentralized rails through the main app what if you could you know do pendle style products in the main like options all sorts of things like I think all of these are on the table in the future >> what I think is really cool and this is just when you said lending against your stock tokens right is these are Robin Hood in some ways by not doing these things has created opportunities for teams to do these things right and there are products uh that have been launched with with coins on ponds right uh that do and achieve a lot of these functions and I think in a strange way like they have been incredibly hands-off and and it's it's very nice

right like there's no king making there's no picking of winners teams are succeeding or failing on their own merit and I think that has a lot of value um and also at the end of the day. It's like I've said, it's created opportunities for DeFi teams or people in crypto to build this infrastructure themselves and to at the end of the day monetize from it. And that's excellent. Yeah. [snorts] Dave, are there any products that are not yours or projects that are not yours that you think people should kind of have on their minds just because we have an audience here of people perhaps they're not quite as clocked into Robin Hood eco that maybe they should be thinking about? And this is not an endorsement to be clear for purchasing or anything like that, but just from a product point of view, anything interesting happening on the chain that

you've been seeing? Yeah, I think obviously Pawns is the most interesting thing right now. You have all these different launch pads, but I think Pawns has really stuck out for the reasons I said earlier because of how they think of egalitarian infrastructure. And my advice would be to look for more egalitarian infrastructure that places every user, every holder on the same field because if someone has an advantage, they're going to take advantage of that. They're going to use that edge to the uh to forsake everybody else. And that's how we think at UFG. Uh everybody's treat is treated at the same level. everybody's able to access our own treasur our treasury at the same level and I think in the future if you're looking for products and tokens to invest in um I think anything with immutable treasury is the way to go.

>> Sounds good. Ko you said that um you know if if you had one suggestion you know and you gave what your suggestion was earlier. Let's pretend and I don't think we even have to pretend that Vlad Tenev is going to watch this uh video later. Say one thing. Say please listen please do this. this is what's going to actually make it happen. >> List tokens more rapidly. Um, lean into it. I I I look back, I was really active in F FTX in the early days of it and I saw the way that they grew and the way that a bunch of different platforms have grown over time is that they were not afraid to rapidly list. And you have an audience [snorts] that wants to use your chain. You have people that are loyal to it. Um, you

know, again, lean into it. list rapidly, work with teams, grow the team, right? Like it's a little bit difficult right now to reach out and find the right person to talk to at some of these events. But I mean at the same time though I want to give them a lot of credit where you know they have mentioned some things and they are you know I I I believe they are working in the background. That's why so many people are so bullish on the chain itself is because they realize how much they have done with the app and the innovation that they've seen on that side of it. So incredibly bullish about what's to come with everything. Um, you know, really invested on the pond side of things with different tokens that have launched from there and you know,

like I'm really locked in to see what they end up doing with that side moving >> Grayson, would you have a suggestion to Vlad if you were sat here just you guys, you know, having a beer? >> Look, I mean, I think just more interactivity even even on his end with the chain, right? Um, I think he's somebody that a lot of people look up to, think very highly of. Um, I'd love to see, you know, as Grayson had mentioned, more and more integrations, more ways for, you know, Robin Hood's user base, uh, to access and interact with this chain. Um, and again, theoretically, some education, right, from the Robin Hood team, from Vlad himself around the opportunities that exist on chain and all the cool and fun things you can do there that frankly you can't do in a lot of the Trafy world.

>> Just lean in a little bit more. What about you, Dave? My advice would be after you see a team that proves themselves, you double, you triple down on that momentum. You put them in the best circumstances succeed. And if you do that, that's when you make the chain to be successful. Because, you know, right right now, we have we're in the early stages. We have all these apps, but like it's pretty clear who the winners are going to be. And when you see that and you double down and triple down, that's how you make the chain successful. >> I I did notice that in the first uh week or two, um Vlad was following people a good bit. I mean, he followed me. I think I was I think I was the first like non project you followed and he followed uh index and a couple other things in

pawns eventually and and then that seems to have slowed down a little bit and maybe there was some internal discussions you know about maybe that shouldn't be should shouldn't be done but uh we sure would like it. >> Yeah, even doing something as small that goes a long way. >> Good deal. Folks, I really appreciate you coming out. Um I know it's it's you know we're running late today. It's u started a little bit late but we hope it's been very valuable for you. We've got 25 seconds left. So thanks a lot. Hope you guys have a great one. Thank you guys very much. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Great.