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Wall Street research firm Bernstein has restated a constructive view on Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD), arguing that the brokerage’s proprietary blockchain is already contributing meaningful profit rather than remaining a speculative experiment.
Analysts led by Gautam Chhugani kept an Outperform rating and a $160 price objective.
That target sits about 31 percent above Friday’s close of $122.11, a session in which the stock slipped just over 2 percent.
US markets were closed Monday for a holiday, so the note landed as trading resumed.
The centerpiece of the argument is Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum layer-2 network built with Arbitrum technology that went live on July 1.
In a little more than two months the chain has drawn roughly $1.5 billion in total value locked and processed more than $50 billion of decentralized-exchange volume.
Bernstein’s note described the shift in blunt terms: the network has become an earnings engine.
Daily trading fees are now running between $2 million and $4 million. Over the most recent 15-day window the chain collected about $33 million, placing it first among all blockchains surveyed.
That figure exceeded Solana’s roughly $11 million and BNB Chain’s approximately $9 million over the same stretch.
Cumulative fees since launch stand near $39 million.
The firm projects the network could generate around $160 million in annual fees by 2028.Economics of the arrangement favor Robinhood.
The company retains about 90 percent of fee revenue.
Roughly 10 percent is shared with Arbitrum under the technology-licensing arrangement, and less than 1 percent is paid to Ethereum for data availability.
That structure turns on-chain activity into a high-margin line rather than a cost center.
Tokenization activity has accelerated alongside the fee surge.
The value of tokenized equities residing on Robinhood Chain has risen from about $10 million to $140 million in two months.
Stablecoin supply on the network has also expanded sharply, reaching approximately $1 billion from roughly $241 million shortly after launch, according to figures circulating with the research.
The note sits against a broader Bernstein thesis that Robinhood is evolving from a retail brokerage and crypto venue into an on-chain financial infrastructure provider.
Prediction markets, perpetual futures, and tokenized stocks have been cited in earlier reports as the next growth layers.
The rapid fee generation on Robinhood Chain supplies an earlier-than-expected cash-flow proof point for that strategy.
Investors still face the usual caveats.
Crypto-related volumes can be cyclical, and competition among layer-2 networks and alternative chains remains intense.
Fee leadership over a 15-day window does not guarantee lasting dominance.
Even so, Bernstein treats the current run-rate as evidence that the chain is already accretive rather than merely promotional.
The $160 target has been held through several earlier notes this year as the firm adjusted other assumptions around crypto trading and newer product lines.
The latest update simply adds a concrete, near-term revenue stream that did not exist at the start of the summer.
Whether the market awards the implied multiple will depend on how consistently the chain converts volume into retained fees and whether tokenized-asset balances continue to compound. For now, Bernstein’s message is that Robinhood’s blockchain is no longer just a strategic option—it is producing income that already outstrips two of the industry’s best-known networks over a recent measurement period.
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Source: www.crowdfundinsider.com