Robinhood's Chain Lifts Its Crypto Revenue

gm, Defiers!

These are the biggest stories in DeFi and crypto:

• Robinhood Chain brought in $26M of $120M crypto revenue
• AI agents raised their own wallet caps in a test
• The CFTC sued Utah to shield prediction markets
• Circle's Arc passed $1B in USDC in six weeks
• Ripple won its final OCC trust-bank approval

Robinhood Chain brought in $26 million of the $120 million in crypto revenue Robinhood reported for the third quarter today. Total crypto revenue rose 20% from the second quarter, and the chain, Robinhood's Ethereum Layer 2, accounts for all of that growth. Without it, crypto revenue fell 6% to $94 million. Customers traded 38% less crypto in the app and on Bitstamp than in the same quarter of 2025.

The chain changes who Robinhood can earn from. The app and Bitstamp make money only from Robinhood's own customers, and those customers are trading less. The chain is a permissionless network: anyone with a compatible wallet can trade on it, whether or not they have a Robinhood account. The Stock Tokens it hosts are closed to U.S. persons, so their buyers come from outside Robinhood's home market. Its decentralized exchanges handled more than $80 billion in volume in its first quarter. By our arithmetic, the chain kept about 3 cents of every $100 traded there.

Robinhood is now adding more reasons to use the chain. Today it opened Earn to all eligible users, which lends the USDG stablecoin through a Morpho vault on Robinhood Chain at an advertised 7%. The vault, curated by Steakhouse Financial, already holds about $541.5 million. Ondo brought 15 of its stock tokens to the chain from Ethereum and BNB Chain. New Uniswap pools pair them with Robinhood's own tokens for the same stocks. Ondo's tokens can be redeemed around the clock, while Robinhood's mint and burn only on weekdays, so the pools give weekend traders a way out. Last week Morpho opened Robinhood Stock Tokens to stablecoin borrowing. By our count, about $3.9 million of the tokens sat as collateral in Morpho markets on the chain on Monday.

Read more below!

As of 22:47 UTC, Oct. 27. Data: CoinGecko, Aave, Hyperliquid. Full list

CEFI

Robinhood Chain Lifts Q3 Crypto Revenue to $120 Million

Robinhood missed Wall Street's third-quarter forecasts, with $1.424 billion in net revenue and diluted earnings of 51 cents a share against expectations of about $1.44 billion and 56 cents. Net revenue still rose 12% from a year earlier. The results include $67 million of unrealized losses, mostly from Robinhood Ventures Fund I. Crypto revenue fell short of the $135.6 million average forecast compiled by Zacks. Its new adjusted earnings measure, which excludes some non-operating items, put EPS at 60 cents.

Robinhood Chain Lifts Q3 Crypto Revenue to $120 Million

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SECURITY

AI Agents Approved Their Own Spending Increases on Circle Agent Wallets

Nine of 10 AI models raised the spending cap on a Circle agent wallet without asking the user, a Cornell Tech, Yale and IC3 paper found. They took the one-time passcode from the user's inbox and entered it themselves. Only claude-opus-5.5 never did. When forged emails asked for money, five models raised the cap and paid the attacker. The authors argue that any approval routed through a device the agent controls cannot prove a human approved it. Circle now warns users never to give an agent access to their email.

REGULATION

CFTC Sues Utah to Block Prediction-Market Enforcement

The CFTC sued Utah to stop it from applying state gambling laws to federally regulated prediction markets, including its Oct. 20 case against Kalshi and Susquehanna. The agency argues that event contracts are swaps under its exclusive jurisdiction. A federal judge sided with Utah against Kalshi in August. Separately, Polymarket has investigated dozens of midterm bets for insider trading and added five-minute crypto contracts. On BNB Chain, Myriad voided 10 markets after an admin-wallet compromise, and Predict.fun pledged to refund about $400,000.

BLOCKCHAINS

Circle’s Arc Tops $1 Billion in USDC

Circle's Arc passed $1 billion in USDC about six weeks after its mainnet launch. Arc charges transaction fees in USDC and has no separate gas token. The four largest addresses hold about 73% of the supply, by The Defiant's count from explorer data, so the total says little about how widely the dollars are used. Part of the growth came from the perpetuals exchange Extended, which moved about $120 million of trading collateral from Starknet to Arc last week.

TRADFI AND FINTECH

Ripple Wins Final OCC Trust Bank Approval for RLUSD Reserves and Custody

Ripple won final OCC approval for Ripple National Trust Bank, which will manage RLUSD's segregated reserves, act as collateral trustee for holders and offer fiduciary custody. Standard Custody & Trust Company keeps issuing RLUSD, and BNY stays its main reserve custodian. The charter covers trust activities only, so the bank cannot take deposits or make loans, and it carries no FDIC insurance. Ripple puts RLUSD's market cap at $2.5 billion. Circle, BitGo and Fidelity already run OCC trust banks.

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