Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has criticized Robinhood Chain fees, arguing that the brokerage profits from network congestion rather than charging users openly within its own app.
Robinhood Chain transaction fees now average roughly $0.40. Yakovenko says Solana handles the same work for a fraction of a cent.
Why Robinhood Chain Fees Keep Climbing
Robinhood Chain went live on mainnet on July 1, 2026. The network runs on Arbitrum technology, settles to Ethereum, and uses Ether (ETH) for gas.
Usage has climbed hard since. Robinhood Chain fees reached $4.22 million in one day against roughly 10.4 million transactions, data shows. That lands near $0.40 each.
Median costs point the same way. Currently, the network ranks first among 27 chains at $0.24, ahead of every rival. Congestion sets that price, not a posted rate.
Growth explains part of the pressure. Grayscale recently named Robinhood Chain among the three leading venues for tokenized stock trading, alongside BNB Chain and Solana.
Meanwhile, Solana charges a base fee of 5,000 lamports per signature. Lamports are Solana’s smallest unit, and 1 SOL equals 1 billion lamports.
At the current Solana price near $102, that fee stays well under a cent. Solana (SOL) is down 1.64% on the day.
Solana Co-Founder Points at the Arbitrum Revenue Share
Robinhood Chain fees also feed Arbitrum. The brokerage hands over 10% of net revenue under its licensing terms. Of that, 8% goes to the Arbitrum DAO treasury, and 2% funds the Developer Guild.
Those payments have already revived Arbitrum’s ARB token, which climbed 90% off its record low. Yakovenko argues the same slice would cover Solana fees four times over.
Not everyone reads Robinhood Chain fees that way. Gnosis co-founder Martin Köppelmann noted Robinhood earns money rather than giving the service away. He doubted the pitch would land.
Yakovenko replied that front ends typically charge 50 to 80 basis points. For example, Uniswap ranks among the busiest network apps, alongside Relay.
Still, Robinhood Chain fees are only one strain. The chain also stalled block production briefly this week, and users paid $0.40 anyway.
The wider question is who ends up paying. Users cover the $0.40, Ethereum takes its settlement cost, and Robinhood keeps the rest.