A pseudonymous onchain analyst known as Wazz published an investigation alleging that 53 memecoin launches on Robinhood Chain were tied to one organized operation that extracted at least $18.43 million between July 10 and September 21, 2026. The Block reported the findings on September 27 and said it independently matched the launch pattern in 10 of the tokens listed. The chain itself only went live on July 1.
The attribution rests on blockchain activity and wallet-funding patterns. Wazz did not identify any of the people behind the wallets, and no person or entity has been publicly charged in connection with the launches.
The mechanism: a 99% tax, and who gets exempted
The launches in question were Pons V2 token sales. Pons V2 applies a 99% snipe tax to buys made in the first seconds after launch, then decays that tax over the opening period. Creators can exempt a limited number of wallets from the tax.
According to the investigation, creators exempted groups of wallets, and those wallets then made bundled purchases that acquired most of the token supply before ordinary buyers could act. Almost every launch was sniped for more than 70% of supply, often bundled across 70 to 200 wallets.
The DEED launch is the clearest example in the research. Per the findings, 179.88 ETH was swept from 98 wallets tied to an earlier launch called DRAFT, routed through intermediary wallets and used to fund 50 addresses. DEED launched 40 minutes later. After the opening purchase, the creator wallet and the tax-exempt wallets held 86% of the token's supply.
The timings get tighter from there. In some cases, funds moved seconds before the same funding key was used for the next launch. For DEED, 20 ETH was sent 16 seconds before the funding key signed DEED's funding batch.
How the 53 launches link up
Wazz connected 45 of the 53 launches through proceeds from one launch being moved through a hub and used to fund the next. Four more were tied together by the same private keys signing funding batches. Another four shared a collector wallet that received proceeds from multiple launches.
The research also flags fake launches that used a token's name before the real one went out — three PINK launches, three CRUMBS launches and three DEED launches, all linked to the same operation. Wazz estimated CRUMBS generated $3.12 million in extracted funds and PINK $1.44 million.
Two other serial deployment operations were flagged in the research but could not be directly linked to this network. Those allegedly pulled in millions of dollars across dozens of launches as well.
Why the money is hard to claw back
Much of the identified funds remain in ETH. That matters: unlike stablecoins, ETH sitting in a wallet can't be frozen by an issuer at the push of a button, so recovery would depend on someone identifying and pursuing the wallets. Wazz also noted the $18.43 million figure could be higher, since the analysis only counts activity that could be directly connected onchain.
The Block's independent match covers 10 of the 53 tokens. That backs the reported pattern without verifying every case Wazz cites.
A chain built on memecoins
Robinhood launched Robinhood Chain on July 1, 2026, an Ethereum layer-2 built with Arbitrum technology. In its investor materials, the company said memecoin activity became a major driver of early trading and fee generation on the chain. Robinhood has reported around $50 million in revenue from Robinhood Chain to date.
The numbers behind that: monthly revenue ran roughly $3 million in July, about $7 million in August, then jumped to approximately $40 million in September. The alleged extraction window opened nine days after the chain went live and ran through September 21 — covering most of that memecoin-led run.
Robinhood has not publicly responded to the investigation. What's unresolved is whether the wallets behind the network can be traced past the onchain layer, and whether the pattern shows up in launches beyond the 53 Wazz catalogued.
