Robinhood on Ethereum: Great for the Network, Bad for ETH?

Yeah, so Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and current ConsenSys chairman, he came out and said something which is just ridiculous, actually. He said, "Um, you know, this is great. Tens of thousands of companies will set up shop over the next 2 to 3 years on some mix of Ethereum L1, L2, and private permissioned EVMs like Besu Chain." And then somebody replied, "Um, actually, Mr. Lubin, I'm not sure there are tens of thousands of Robinhoods out there. In fact, there may only be one or two. And if they're each paying 1,500 bucks a week to Ethereum, I don't think that's going to pump anyone's bags." Basically, it was the retort there. Which that lines up with what I've been saying for so, is there anything else to add here, or do we Is the dunk on Ethereum complete? I mean, have we broken the backboard? All I have to say is I've repeated this many times, but hell hath no fury like a bagholder scorned. Yeah, exactly. I held Ethereum for years and came out of it basically even, and meanwhile lost a lot in opportunity costs. Yeah. So, yeah, 100% right, Graham, and you know, we've been talking about it, and it doesn't seem like this is going to There's no There's no like model, financial model, that kind of leads to Ethereum's price going up other than the speculative asset speculative nature of it. Like, lots of people are using Ethereum. Ethereum is important. Robinhood's using it. Look at all this activity. I should hold it because I think other people are going to hold it. So, yeah, the Tom Lee thesis. The Tom Lee thesis that, you know, the normal stock market has no value other than that people just want to make other people they want to sell their useless things to other people. Yeah, which is valid. That is valid. That is, I mean, sadly kind of how it works. I don't think that's kind of why the stock market has gone up so much for this whole time. You could argue exactly why, but it seems like it has more there's more fundamental reasons for that than in crypto. Do you know what I'm saying? Do you know what I'm saying? Absolutely. I mean the billions of dollars are actually being invested into data center build-out, chip construction, all that. And he specifically electricians. Yeah, well, he specifically called out thousands. Yeah. He was like Apple's valuation doesn't really make sense. So like, well, are you walk around the world and everyone has Apple phones and Apple's like a household brand name because they build things in the real world. And you know, so anyway, it's But there's quite a few people out there with Ethereum tattoos on them. So. I think the kind of the maybe the more interesting part about this is what this means. So number one, how much of this activity on the Robinhood chain is sustainable? I wrote about this in the newsletter last week like it it's thus far it's followed a kind of a very similar pattern where you get like a new a new happening cool alt two with some kind of spin on a narrative like, oh, it's this Robinhood and they have a lot of everybody jumps in on the memes. They all go in because there's no there's no native memes, right? They're like, no, it's like a fresh slate. We can make a new meme culture, right? Like Doge was on Ethereum, but then we go to Solana and we have WIF because it's like Doge, but it's different. And so then WIF gets pumped up because and all the speculators they did that on base. Yeah, if you remember that. Hyper even hyper EVM had that and I got suckered in. Yes, and so you're seeing this with Robinhood chain now too. A lot of the I don't know meme KOLs have are on my timeline here and then they're like, yes, no, the real meme is Vlad Tenev's cat thing or you know, whatever this kind of like just the lowest of the low kind of stuff. So I think I want to know and maybe Alex you and I can get into this afterwards, but I'd like to get it dig into the data and see like what where is this what's what is the what is the volume representing? Like the DEX volume representing? Is it just meme coins being traded or are people in the Robinhood app actually like buying and selling real like Bitcoin or ether or something like that? My stocks. Or stocks. But it's on the DEX, right? Like so I'm like so I might guess is that it's just a bunch of like PVP degenerate kind of emaciated crypto natives trying to like take money from each other. And that very few Robinhood users actual Robinhood users are using this to do like, oh, I want to buy some ether. You know, I don't know. That would be my guess. And so the interesting thing is if I'm right, what you'd see is you'd see this volume go down over time unless actual Robinhood users, which they have a lot of, start to use this as well. [music] Mhm.

will set up shop over the next 2 to 3 years on some mix of Ethereum L1, L2, and private permissioned EVMs like Besu Chain." And then somebody replied, "Um, actually, Mr. Lubin, I'm not sure there are tens of thousands of

Robinhoods out there. In fact, there may only be one or two. And if they're each paying uh 1,500 bucks a week to Ethereum, I don't think that's going to pump anyone's bags." Basically, it was was the retort there.

Which uh that lines up with what I've been saying for So, is there anything else to add here, or do we Is Is the dunk on Ethereum complete?

I mean, Have we broken the backboard? All I have to say is I've repeated this many times, but hell hath no fury like a bagholder scorned.

Yeah, exactly. I hold I held Ethereum for years and like came out of it basically even, and meanwhile lost a lot in opportunity costs.

Yeah. So, yeah, 100% right, Graham, and you know, we've been talking about it, and it it doesn't seem like this is going to There's no There's no like model, financial model, that kind of leads to Ethereum's price going up

other than the specula- speculative asset speculative nature of it. Like, lots of people are using Ethereum.

Ethereum is important. Robinhood's using it. Look at all this activity. I should hold it because I think other people are going to hold it. So, Yeah, the the Tom Lee thesis.

The Tom Lee thesis uh that uh you know, the normal stock market has no value other than that people just want to make other people they want to sell their their useless things to other people.

Yeah, which is valid. That is valid. That is I mean sadly kind of how it works.

don't think that's kind of why the stock market has gone up so much for for this whole time.

You could argue exactly why, but it it it seems like it has more there's more fundamental reasons for that than than in crypto. Do you know what I'm saying? Do you know what I'm saying?

Absolutely. I mean the billions of dollars are are actually being invested into data center build-out, chip construction, all that. And he specifically electricians Yeah, well, he specifically called out thousands.

Yeah. He was like Apple's valuation doesn't really make sense. So like, well, are you walk around the world and everyone has Apple phones and Apple's like a household brand name because they build things in the real world.

And you know, so anyway, it's But there's a quite a few people out there with Ethereum tattoos on them. So.

I I think the kind of the the maybe the more interesting part about this is what this means. So so number one, um how much of this activity on the Robinhood chain is is sustainable? I wrote about this in the newsletter last

week like it it's thus far it's followed a kind of a very similar pattern where you get like a new a new happening cool alt two with some kind of spin on a narrative like, oh, it's this Robinhood and they have a lot

of everybody jumps in on the memes. They all go in because there's no there's no native memes, right? They're like, no, it's like a fresh slate. We can make a new meme culture, right? Like Doge was on Ethereum, but then we go to

Solana and we have WIF because it's it's like Doge, but it's different. And so then WIF gets pumped up because and all the speculators they did that on base.

Yeah, if you remember that. Hyper even hyper EVM had that and I got suckered in.

Yes, and so you're seeing this with Robinhood chain now too. A lot of the I don't know meme K O L L's have have are on my timeline here and then they're like, yes, no, the the real meme is

Vlad Tenev's cat thing or you know, whatever this kind of like just the lowest of the low kind of stuff. So I think I think I want to know and maybe Alex you and I can get into this

afterwards, but I'd like to get it dig into the data and see like what where is this what's what is the what is the volume representing? Like the DEX volume representing? Is it is it just meme coins being traded or or are are

people in the Robinhood app actually like buying and selling real like like Bitcoin or ether or or something like that. My stocks.

Or stocks. But it's on the DEX, right? Like so I'm like so I might guess is that it's just a bunch of like PVP degenerate kind of emaciated crypto natives trying to like take money from each other.

Um and and that very few Robinhood users actual Robinhood users are are using this to to do to do like, oh, I want to buy some ether.

You know, I don't know. That would be my guess. And so the the interesting thing is if if I'm right, what you'd see is you'd see this volume go down over time unless actual Robinhood users, which they have

a lot of start to start to use this as well. [music] Mhm.