Daily trading volume in memecoin-stock-token pairs on Robinhood Chain jumped from virtually zero in July, when the network launched, to $443 million in early September, according to CryptoQuant. Since then, that activity has fallen 96%.
The burst was tied to a flood of new tokens. About 26,000 were launched on the chain each day in September, according to Dune data, with the daily total reaching nearly 45,000 on Sept. 8. Most of those tokens saw little or no volume after launch and are now worth almost nothing.
Robinhood Chain was not the only platform to see the pattern. In mid-September, Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, launched Arc, a blockchain built for Wall Street banks and other large institutions to move money and trade digital assets. On its first day open to public trading, memecoin launchpads generated more than $336 million in trading volumes on Arc.
The surge fits a familiar crypto cycle. New blockchains and decentralized exchanges often get attention and retail interest first through memecoin speculation, only for the trading to fade once the novelty wears off. Solana saw that dynamic in 2024 with Pump.fun, a platform that lets users create and trade tokens within minutes. TRON later rolled out SunPump as a rival launchpad, and the activity also subsided to almost nothing.
Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, said the pattern is not durable. 'It’s a way for blockchains and/or new apps to attract money/activity into them, but it is not sustainable. Most of these assets/memecoins will trend to zero,' he told Fortune in a written statement.
Jim Thorne, chief market strategist at Wellington-Altus, compared the frenzy to 'trading Pokémon cards.' He said the speculative trade is separate from the underlying technology, arguing that tokenization — turning assets into digital tokens that can be traded on a blockchain — is here to stay. 'Memecoin trading is an unfortunate distraction [from] the power of tokenization,' he said.
The September boom-and-bust also unfolded as Washington was weighing new rules for crypto. On Sept. 15, the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, a bill that would have set nationwide rules for crypto markets. Over the next few days, memecoin trading on Robinhood Chain and Arc surged.
Thorne said it was a short period when traders thought crypto might return to the 'wild, wild west' after the CLARITY Act failed. The frenzy later began to fade after the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a five-year exemption allowing certain platforms to test blockchain-based trading of tokenized stocks under specific rules.
The numbers come first. A $443 million burst that collapses 96% is not a market building durable capital formation; it is speculation chasing the next novelty. When regulation is unclear, the market rewards speed over substance, and the taxpayer ultimately inherits the political pressure that follows every bust.
Capital rewards clear rules. The technology underneath tokenization may have a future, but memecoin manias do not create it. They temporarily inflate volumes, attract attention, and leave a trail of nearly worthless tokens when the music stops.
