Seven Banks Act on Robinhood as Chain Volume Surges to $877M
Seven financial institutions adjusted their positions on Robinhood Markets ahead of second-quarter earnings, driven by a sudden explosion in trading volume on the broker's newly launched blockchain network.
Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Mizuho, and Compass Point all raised their price targets for Robinhood Markets between July 2 and July 10. The new consensus range sits between $124 and $132, arriving just weeks before the company reports second-quarter earnings on July 29. Morgan Stanley lifted its target to $124 while maintaining a Hold rating, and Bank of America raised its outlook to $132 with a Buy rating.
This cluster of target increases is highly unusual for competing desks. Three additional banks made moves in the same nine-day window, bringing the total to seven. China Renaissance initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a Street-high target of $156.80 on July 7. BTIG started at $125, while Piper Sandler reiterated its $135 target.
The primary catalyst behind this wave of optimism is Robinhood Chain, which went live on July 1. Within two weeks, the network’s daily decentralized exchange volume surged to a record $877.6 million on July 10. On that specific day, the network briefly surpassed Ethereum in 24-hour DEX volume to rank third among all blockchain networks.
The sheer pace of adoption has caught the attention of equity analysts. Daily volume expanded from $400,000 on launch day to $868.8 million by July 12, a 6,752% jump week-over-week according to DefiLlama data. At its peak, the 12-day-old network was processing roughly 72% of the daily DEX volume seen on Solana, the chain that has led the sector for most of the cycle.
However, a closer look at the on-chain data reveals that this explosion in volume remains largely speculative. Bernstein analysts, led by Gautam Chhugani, calculated that the network processed $3.1 billion in DEX volume during its first week. While more than 65,000 users hold roughly $300 million in stablecoins and $13 million in tokenized stocks, Dune data showed the top-performing asset was a meme coin called Cash Cat, which alone accounted for $299 million in volume.
Analysts are divided on how to value this new blockchain activity. Mizuho's Dan Dolev argued the broker could become the "first global hyperscaler of online brokerages." Meanwhile, Compass Point's Ed Engel is forecasting an 18% second-quarter EBITDA beat. Investors will find out on July 29 whether this speculative on-chain traffic translates into tangible bottom-line improvements.
