$18.4M Allegedly Extracted Across 53 Robinhood Chain Token Launches

Pseudonymous onchain analyst Wazz has published an investigation alleging a large, organized token extraction operation connected to 53 launches on Robinhood Chain over a two-month period.

The wallets and transactions involved in the operation were linked through the movement of funds between launches.

Fake Launches, Wallet Bundles

Wazz estimates that the group extracted at least $18.43 million but acknowledged that the figure could be higher because the analysis only includes activity they could directly connect onchain.

The investigation began with the DEED launch. However, Wazz said DEED was not among the 10 launches with the highest amount extracted. Instead, the analyst identified a wider network of launches that appeared to share funding and wallet relationships. The proceeds from one token launch were often moved through a hub and then used to fund another launch. Interestingly, in some cases, the transfer happened only seconds before the same funding key was used for the next launch.

According to the investigation, 45 of the 53 launches were connected through this pattern. Wazz also identified other links. Four launches were connected through the same private keys signing funding batches. Four more were linked through a shared collector wallet that received proceeds from multiple launches. Almost every launch was sniped for more than 70% of the token supply. The launches were often bundled with between 70 and 200 wallets. Most of the launches, according to the analyst, were created through Pons V2.

One example involved DRAFT and DEED. Wazz said 98 wallets associated with DRAFT moved 179.88 ETH into a hub. The hub then funded another wallet, which sent 20 ETH to the DEED funding key. Just 16 seconds later, that key signed DEED’s funding batch. In some other cases, the same token name appeared in multiple launches before the actual launch. These fake launches could have been used to build hype and extract money before the real contract address was announced.

The investigation identified three PINK launches, three CRUMBS launches, and three DEED launches linked to the same operation. Wazz estimated that CRUMBS generated $3.12 million in extracted funds, while PINK generated $1.44 million.

At least two other serial deployment operations were also flagged that could not yet be directly linked to this network. Those operations allegedly extracted millions of dollars across dozens of launches. Much of the identified funds remain in ETH, meaning they cannot simply be frozen.

Revenue Surges

Meme coins and tokenized stocks have emerged as major drivers of trading activity across the Arbitrum-based Ethereum Layer 2 network, Robinhood Chain, which was launched in July.

Since then, Robinhood has reported around $50 million in revenue from the network to date. The monthly figures rose from roughly $3 million in July to about $7 million in August. Revenue then climbed to approximately $40 million in September.