Gen Zs are rewriting the rules of wealth creation, increasingly trading the traditional financial playbook for a high-stakes game of chance.
From cryptocurrencies and memecoins to sports betting and prediction markets, the generation is exploring unconventional ways in pursuit of financial gains that once seemed possible only through years of saving and investing.
In this complex financial landscape, the line separating investing from gambling is blurring by the day. In fact, Ashley Embers recently highlighted how 37% of Gen Z respondents engage in sports betting, while 20% place bets online.
More concerningly, over half of Gen Z adults aged 18–29 reportedly redirected money originally intended for investments into sports betting over the past year, with 14% doing so several times a month.
This shift is also being reflected in a few corners of the crypto market, which is even better than memecoins.
Robinhood steals the spotlight, but is it for the right reasons?
One interesting example of this shift is Robinhood Chain.
When Robinhood introduced its Ethereum [ETH] Layer-2 network, the company planned to build a three-in-one infrastructure layer, which includes tokenized stocks, real-world assets [RWAs], and decentralized finance [DeFi] applications.
Expanding on this, Johann Kerbrat, SVP and General Manager of Crypto and International at Robinhood, said,
We’re bringing the best of traditional finance and DeFi together, and in doing so, expanding financial ownership to every corner of the globe.
The main goal of the team was to bring traditional financial markets on-chain to enable users to access tokenized versions of familiar assets through blockchain infrastructure.
However, the network’s early adoption took a complete U-turn from the initial goal. Rather than being primarily driven by tokenized equities and traditional financial products, Robinhood Chain attracted considerable attention from memecoin traders.
Expressing his opinion on the matter, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said,
If you hold a memecoin, you just get stock tokens airdropped to you.
This has raised an interesting question: Is Robinhood building the next generation of tokenized financial markets, or has it accidentally created another destination for speculative crypto trading?
Memecoins are taking over Robinhood Chain
Tokenized equities were expected to be one of the Robinhood’s defining use cases. However, the initial trading activity suggested that traders have found another reason to use the network.
Per Bitquery’s analysis of Robinhood Chain’s trading activity between the 16th and the 28th of July 2026, memecoins accounted for approximately 93.5% of trading across 63.5 million transactions. Tokenized equities, meanwhile, represented just 6.5%.
CoinGecko also highlighted this shift in trend. As per its July 2026 assessment, memecoins accounted for 79.2% of Robinhood Chain’s DEX volume, whereas RWAs made up just 9.69%.
These reveal a considerable gap between Robinhood’s intended use case and actual market demand.
How did tokenized stocks ignite the memecoin frenzy?
Robinhood Chain has also enabled creators to pair their memecoins with tokenized versions of established companies.
This means that tokenized equities are not necessarily being used for traditional investment purposes. Instead, they have become the trading currency through which users speculate on unrelated digital assets.
Similarly, Bloomberg reported that daily trading volume in pairs combining Robinhood stock tokens with memecoins had reached approximately $443 million in early September.
Growth metrics convey a different story
Yet, despite the speculative nature of its activity, Robinhood Chain has recorded impressive growth since its launch. CoinGecko’s Q3 2026 Crypto Industry Report highlighted the network as the third-most-active blockchain within just three months of its public launch.
In Q3 2026, Robinhood Chain generated more than $88.9 billion in trading volume, averaging approximately 9.5 million transactions per day.
Daily trading volume on its native decentralized exchanges also increased from approximately $1.3 million on launch day to a peak of $3.5 billion on the 4th of September.
The company also added approximately $25 million worth of Bitcoin to its corporate balance sheet in October, describing the purchase as an asset-diversification strategy.
These developments indicate that Robinhood’s broader ambitions extend well beyond memecoins.
Risks that can’t be ignored
However, memecoin trading on the Robinhood Chain is not without its risks.
Bitquery’s investigation found that approximately 84% of the nearly 15,000 tokens launched daily never traded again after their initial transaction. The investigation also revealed that three out of every four open trading positions were underwater.
Meanwhile, Fortune subsequently reported that trading volume in these memecoin-stock pairs had fallen by approximately 96% from its early-September peak.
This highlights how quickly speculative enthusiasm disappears. Yet, despite these concerns, it would be premature to conclude that memecoin activity is sabotaging Robinhood’s broader ambitions.
In fact, the silver lining here might be that speculation could be serving as an unexpected entry point into tokenized finance.
Though the company may have succeeded in getting traders through the door, whether they stay for tokenized stocks and RWAs, rather than the next viral memecoin, remains the bigger question on the table.
Final Summary
- The daily trading volume in pairs combining Robinhood stock tokens with memecoins had reached approximately $443 million in early September.
- Meanwhile, Robinhood Chain’s trading volume averaged approximately 9.5 million transactions per day during Q3 2026.
