Arbitrum Foundation Reports First Half 2026 Progress Update

• The network processed 478 million transactions in the half, taking its lifetime total to 2.7 billion, with ecosystem GDP of $206 million for the period and $1.7 billion cumulative since launch
• Average monthly stablecoin transfer volume exceeded $70 billion and Arbitrum ranked first by tokenised real-world asset deployments
• Income of $6.19 million accrued to the ArbitrumDAO across four lines in the half and the collective gross margin on protocol revenue rose to more 97%
• Arbitrum Expansion Program licence fees were 35% of ArbitrumDAO income in July, the first month with Robinhood Chain on mainnet

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, Sept. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Arbitrum Foundation today published its Bi-Annual Progress Update for the first half of 2026, covering the six months to 30 June. The report sets out activity across Arbitrum One and the Arbitrum Chains built on its technology, together with the Foundation's own operational and financial details. It also carries the headline figures for ArbitrumDAO's income and treasury. The ecosystem's income accrued across four lines in this period and in July the Arbitrum Expansion Program became a material line as Robinhood Chain came onto mainnet.

"The first half of 2026 shows the Arbitrum ecosystem's financial profile broadening. It now looks like a diversified economic enterprise, with four income lines at a blended gross margin above 97% and an expansion programme that accounted for 35% of the ArbitrumDAO's July income, the first month Robinhood Chain was on mainnet," said Brendan Ma, Head of Investment Strategy, the Arbitrum Foundation.

"The demand behind those numbers comes from the convergence of traditional finance and onchain finance that is happening today on the Arbitrum platform. Against subdued market conditions across the industry, the ecosystem's growth has accelerated since the half ended. On July's figures, total income for the third quarter is already on track to exceed the second quarter by more than 40%."

Ecosystem income and margins

Income of $6.19 million accrued to the ArbitrumDAO from four lines during the half: Arbitrum One transaction fees, Timeboost, Arbitrum Expansion Program (AEP) licence fees and treasury income. The collective gross margin on protocol revenue exceeded 97%, up from more than 90% for full-year 2025.

Under the Arbitrum Expansion Program, Arbitrum chains that settle outside Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova return 10% of net protocol revenue to the Arbitrum ecosystem. Robinhood Chain went live on mainnet on 1 July 2026 and contributes under the programme. In July, AEP licence fees of $360,000 were 35% of ArbitrumDAO income.

Enterprise adoption and the Arbitrum barbell strategy

Arbitrum's barbell strategy places a liquid public chain, Arbitrum One, at one end and purpose-built Arbitrum chains for enterprises at the other, both on the same technology stack. Each Arbitrum chain contributes to the ecosystem: chains settling to Arbitrum One through the fees they pay and chains settling elsewhere under the AEP. Robinhood Chain, a dedicated Arbitrum chain built by Robinhood and settling to Ethereum, launched its public testnet in February 2026 and processed more than 200 million transactions before its mainnet launch on 1 July. The chain follows Robinhood's issuance of tokenised stocks and ETFs on Arbitrum One in June 2025.

Arbitrum ended the half ranked first by tokenised real-world asset deployments, according to RWA.xyz, with more than 2,000 assets deployed. Ecosystem GDP was $206 million for the half, taking the cumulative figure since launch to $1.7 billion. LG Electronics announced a pilot onchain advertising network on Arbitrum, Mastercard expanded stablecoin settlement support to assets on the network and PayPal's PYUSD peaked at $475 million on Arbitrum in the first quarter.

The Arbitrum Foundation took part in more than 15 capital markets events and engaged with more than 150 institutional investors in the half. Independent research coverage also grew. FalconX, a digital asset prime brokerage with $11 billion in assets under management, published a report to its institutional client base that described Arbitrum as "the AWS of blockchains" and modelled Robinhood Chain's effect on long-term protocol economics. Canary Capital, which manages approximately $400 million, initiated coverage with a report covering Robinhood Chain, the adoption trajectory and the long-term investment case for the platform.

ARB supply and capital discipline

As of 17 August 2026, approximately 9.23 billion ARB, or 92.3% of total supply, was unlocked or held in the ArbitrumDAO treasury. The remaining 0.77 billion ARB, 7.7% of total supply, is the balance of the original vesting schedule, with the final vest arriving in March 2027.

ARB holders govern the ArbitrumDAO and direct its assets and income. In addition to the income described above, the DAO held $125 million in non-native treasury assets, excluding ARB, at 30 June 2026, which supports the capital flexibility to pursue opportunities to grow the Arbitrum ecosystem and the DAO's income.

The Foundation, which holds ARB in its own treasury, allocates capital predominantly through milestone-based funding, releasing funds against delivery to limit the market impact of ecosystem spending and aligning major capital deployments with performance milestones. In the six months to 30 June, less than $200,000 of the Foundation's ecosystem grants was issued upfront without milestone conditions.

Report availability

The Bi-Annual Progress Update H1 2026 is available at The Arbitrum Foundation Documents.

The Annual Transparency Report 2025 is available here.

Contact

Alex Speirs, PR & Communications - Arbitrum Foundation - [email protected]

About the Arbitrum Foundation

The Arbitrum Foundation is a Cayman Islands foundation company that is tasked with developing and nurturing the Arbitrum ecosystem. The Foundation operates as a neutral steward in order to support the ArbitrumDAO, the continuous innovation of the Arbitrum technology and the development and education of the Arbitrum community. ArbitrumDAO's token holders direct protocol upgrades and treasury allocation. The Foundation executes on those priorities through grants, partnerships, research, education and developer programmes. It publishes regular transparency reports covering ecosystem growth, technical development, governance and its own finances. More information is available at arbitrum.foundation.

About Arbitrum

Arbitrum is the finance-native blockchain platform providing infrastructure for applications, tokenisation and dedicated blockchain environments. Arbitrum hosts one of the largest financial ecosystems on Ethereum, with deep liquidity and predictable execution at scale. It powers the programmable economy, where markets, transactions and business processes run automatically in software. For businesses launching dedicated environments, Arbitrum provides configurable execution, fee models, compliance and governance, so organisations can define how their systems operate while remaining connected to shared liquidity and a global settlement layer.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arbitrum-foundation-reports-first-half-2026-progress-update-302866991.html

SOURCE Arbitrum Foundation