> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.usegimbal.app/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.usegimbal.app/robinhood-chain/the-case-for-robinhood-chain.md). # The case for Robinhood Chain What a protocol lending against tokenised equities needs from its chain, how Robinhood Chain answers each need, and the three gaps the protocol closes on its own. Three tests decide whether a chain can host securities-backed lending. Is the collateral a plain ERC-20 the holder keeps in their own wallet? Is a regulated entity standing behind it? Does Chainlink price it? Robinhood Chain passes all three. It also brings something no rival can: the same broker issues the collateral and distributes it to the people who hold it. The rest of this page is the evidence. ## The chain, item by item Sources are Robinhood's published documentation and material from the Arbitrum Foundation. ### The assets and their pricing | Item | Robinhood Chain | What Gimbal gets from it | | ----------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Native RWAs | **Stock Tokens**: ERC-20s with 18 decimals, issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Ltd and matched 1:1 with shares held in US custody, sold in 120+ countries | Collateral from a listed broker's own issuance | | Corporate actions | `uiMultiplier()` under ERC-8056: reinvested dividends, and a split expressed as a shares-per-token ratio | Collateral compounds by itself, and no dividend escapes the escrow | | Price feeds | Chainlink: 24/5 Data Feeds, Data Streams using the v11 RWA schema and its `marketStatus` field, CCIP, plus the Sequencer Uptime Feed; every price already contains the multiplier | Pricing fit for production from the first loan | | Stablecoins | USDG (Paxos, MiCA-regulated), issued natively, and the asset Robinhood Earn lends through Morpho; USDe is present; USDC over CCTP *unconfirmed* | The loan currency | | Compliance on the token | **None on the token itself**: Stock Tokens carry no allowlist and no transfer hook; Robinhood enforces eligibility in its UI and at KYC'd issuance and redemption | Gimbal checks eligibility itself, at the protocol boundary | ### The network underneath | Item | Robinhood Chain | What Gimbal gets from it | | -------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Stack | Dedicated Arbitrum Nitro chain (Orbit) running as a rollup; settles to Ethereum, data availability in blobs; 7-day canonical withdrawal | Ethereum's security, and Arbitrum tooling that works unchanged | | Status | Chain ID 4663, mainnet since 1 July 2026; roughly $540M TVL by mid-August 2026, with reported figures anywhere from $536M to $1.4B | Real assets and real users on a live network | | Deployment | Permissionless and EVM-equivalent; Solidity or Vyper with Foundry or Hardhat, and Stylus for Rust and WASM | Contracts ship without asking anyone; the signature verifier is Solidity today, with Stylus available for a cheaper batch verifier | | Blocks and fees | Blocks every 250 ms or so, 100 ms latency with preconfirmations; median transaction about $0.001; gas in ETH | Fast originations and liquidations; a twenty-offer fill stays cheap | | Sequencer | One sequencer run by Robinhood, first-come-first-served, sanctions screened at the sequencer; if it censors, transactions can be forced in through the delayed inbox on L1 once 24 hours have passed | Gimbal is built to ride out 24 hours without a sequencer, and Chainlink's Sequencer Uptime Feed is available | | Account abstraction | ERC-4337 EntryPoints v0.6 to v0.8 and EIP-7702 (ArbOS 40), with Alchemy Gas Manager and ZeroDev as infrastructure | Onboarding without gas, one batch for approve plus borrow, and EIP-1271 offer signatures | | DeFi already present | Uniswap v2, v3 and v4; Morpho Blue; 1inch, Lighter and Arcus | Somewhere to park idle capital, and liquidity for auctions to clear against | | Economics | Robinhood hands 10% of net chain revenue to the Arbitrum DAO, and has also put $1M into sponsoring Arbitrum Open House 2026 | Builders can apply for grants and audit subsidies | ## Where else it could have gone * **Solana.** Tokenised stocks there (Kamino, Jupiter Lend) sit in pooled markets under tight caps, and the issuers are third parties, not the broker whose own customers hold the shares. * **Base.** Coinbase's tokenised stocks reached Base on 24 August 2026. Being newer, they have no lending stack around them yet. * **Ethereum mainnet.** The deepest DeFi in existence, with no equities issued by a broker of its own, and gas that makes a syndicate of twenty lenders uneconomic. Only Robinhood Chain gathers assets, feeds, loan currency, low fees and account abstraction in one place, with the issuing broker's distribution behind all of it. ## What the chain does not do A fair case admits the gaps. There are three, and the protocol closes each one. 1. Nothing on the chain enforces who may hold a Stock Token. The [role registry](/architecture/eligibility.md) does that for Gimbal. 2. Nothing on the chain shields users when the sequencer stops. Gimbal adds a liquidation grace period and the delayed-inbox path; see [When the sequencer stops](/risk/sequencer.md). 3. Nothing on the chain accounts for the gap that opens while markets are closed. Gimbal applies session-aware haircuts; see the [pricing and sessions](/risk/pricing.md) page. --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter, and the optional `goal` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.usegimbal.app/robinhood-chain/the-case-for-robinhood-chain.md?ask=&goal= ``` `ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. `goal` is optional and describes the broader end goal you are ultimately trying to accomplish on behalf of the user. 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