Ethereum sees resurgence as DeFi activity boosts meme coin interest

Ethereum just posted one of its strongest quarters in recent memory, climbing roughly 66% during Q3 2026. The rally wasn’t driven by a single catalyst but by a collision of forces: over $10 billion in ETF inflows, more than $15 billion in corporate ETH purchases, and a DeFi sector that suddenly remembered how to party.

At the center of the action sits Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum Layer-2 network that launched its public mainnet on July 1, 2026. It was built to bridge traditional finance and blockchain through tokenized real-world assets. What actually happened was somewhat different: meme coins took over.

The chain that launched for RWAs but found meme coins first

Robinhood Chain was designed with serious ambitions. The Layer-2 uses ETH as its native gas token, processes blocks in 100 milliseconds, and settles back to Ethereum. It integrated Uniswap’s automated market maker services and Morpho’s lending protocol. The pitch to institutional users centered on around-the-clock trading of tokenized stocks across multiple countries.

Retail traders had other plans. Within weeks of launch, meme coin trading dominated network activity, with real-world assets representing a comparatively small share of early transactions.

CASHCAT, the chain’s flagship meme token, surged to a market cap between $150 million and $200 million shortly after launch. More recent trading has pushed that figure to around $220 million.

At its peak, the chain registered over $800 million in daily decentralized exchange volume. Total value locked climbed rapidly into the hundreds of millions.

Ethereum’s broader momentum

CoinMarketCap research lead Alice Liu, speaking in a September 4, 2026 interview with Cointelegraph, connected the dots between Bitcoin’s recent rise and Ethereum’s DeFi resurgence. She pointed to Robinhood Chain’s meme-driven attention as a key indicator of where retail capital is flowing.

The numbers back her up. DeFi total value locked across related chains reached approximately $88 billion during the quarter. Ethereum’s 66% quarterly gain was also supported by over $10 billion in ETF inflows and corporate treasury allocations exceeding $15 billion.

Alice Liu noted the correlation between Bitcoin’s rise and Ethereum’s DeFi successes, highlighting Robinhood Chain’s meme-driven attention as a significant factor in the current cycle.

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