DeFi App: Between Robinhood and DeFi

Author: Henry Kim, Ryan Yoon Source: Tiger Research Translation: Shan Ouba, Jinse Finance

The decentralized finance ecosystem has equipped all underlying financial modules such as swaps, lending, yield farming, derivatives, and others, but it lacks a practical application layer that allows ordinary users to conveniently access and use these products. This article analyzes the longstanding issues preventing products from simplifying wallet operations and eliminating cross-chain barriers, and details how defi.app fills industry gaps and creates differentiated products.

Key Points

• DeFi infrastructure is becoming increasingly mature, but user-retentive end-user products remain scarce; traditional financial platforms like Robinhood are constrained by regulations and cannot engage in self-custody or high-leverage derivatives.

• defi.app launched in February 2025, with a total trading volume of $44 billion, 1.06 million registered users, and a gas-free, cross-chain universal product model validated by the market.

• Rocket perpetual contracts on the platform charge significantly higher fees than ordinary decentralized exchanges, with 80% of total platform revenue allocated to DIP-004 proposal-based governance decisions for $HOME token buybacks.

• For long-term growth, defi.app cannot rely solely on short-term user acquisition; it must build a user ecosystem based on trust that encourages high-frequency daily usage.

一、Why the Practical Application Layer Has Been Absent Long-Term

Since Ethereum’s inception in 2015, DeFi has undergone a decade of development, yet mass adoption remains stalled. The core issue is not product functionality but poor user onboarding barriers.

A 2023 survey by Consensys and YouGov shows that 93% of respondents worldwide have heard of cryptocurrencies, but only 8% are familiar with Web3 and DeFi. Since then, the industry’s situation has not substantively improved.

A 2025 survey by 1inch lists four major pain points in DeFi usage: 27% cite gas fees, 22% cite asset security risks, 18% cite slow transaction confirmation, and 14% cite cumbersome cross-chain operations. All these are user experience issues, not product logic flaws.

Robinhood’s innovation in traditional securities was achieved during an era of high broker fees and complicated account opening processes, enabling zero-commission stock trading and one-click mobile transactions, lowering barriers to participation through a minimalist experience. However, DeFi’s service scenarios are inherently different, covering high-leverage derivatives, on-chain wealth management, and asset self-custody—businesses constrained by regulations that licensed traditional financial platforms cannot legally operate. Robinhood has launched some crypto spot trading, but self-custody and unlicensed high-leverage products remain outside its compliant scope. Therefore, the goal of DeFi’s landing layer is not to replicate Robinhood’s business model but to create a similarly smooth user experience in areas where Robinhood cannot operate.

二、Underlying Reasons for the Repeated Failures of Similar Past Products

Zerion, Zapper, Instadapp (Avocado) all relied on aggregation dashboards and account abstraction smart accounts to lower DeFi entry barriers. Their product directions were correct, but user retention consistently fell short of expectations. The core shortcoming: a lack of a sustainable user retention loop. After platform tokens and point incentives end, users tend to drift toward new airdrop projects. These products removed technical barriers but could not retain users without subsidies, far from the industry benchmark of 9.2% 30-day retention for traditional finance apps.

Optimizing usability and cultivating daily habits are two separate product logics. Robinhood’s user retention relies not only on zero commissions but also on push notifications, asset statement analysis, and daily activity rewards, forming a self-reinforcing revisit loop. Past DeFi products lacked the product design capability to do this and could only rely on subsidies to maintain user activity.

Reviewing failed cases, to capture the landing application market, platforms must meet three conditions simultaneously:

1. Zero-entry barrier: no chain distinctions, no gas payments, no complex cross-chain operations;

2. Long-term retention mechanism: continue to drive user revisits after subsidies end;

3. Fully native encrypted business: complete deployment of licensed financial services that traditional institutions cannot operate compliantly, such as self-custody and high-leverage categories. Only by meeting these three standards can a product become an industry benchmark.

三、defi.app’s Landing Path and Operational Data

defi.app integrates spot trading, yield farming, and perpetual contracts into a single client, relying on EIP-4337 smart accounts to abstract gas payments, so users do not need to hold gas themselves; the platform connects with aggregators like 1inch and Jupiter to automatically route transactions between EVM-compatible chains and Solana, optimizing execution while hiding underlying chain complexities, enabling one-click access to all financial products.

Operational data since launch: 1.06 million registered users, demonstrating strong user acquisition; monthly active users remain stable at 30k to 40k. Before the official launch of Rocket perpetual contracts, the platform had already accumulated a significant retained user base. The full launch of perpetual contracts on June 4 is a key factor in whether the platform’s user scale can further expand.

四、Rocket Perpetual Contracts: Connecting User Activity, Platform Revenue, and Token Value

Previously, defi.app focused on optimizing usability and building retention systems, benchmarking Robinhood, but still lacked the third core element: exclusive native crypto business. Rocket perpetual contracts fill this gap.

Rocket perpetual contracts support up to 1,000x leverage, feature pixel-art arcade game interfaces, and rely on Aark Digital oracles for instant execution without matching. Users tap the screen to hit asteroids, gaining experience points that can be exchanged for $HOME tokens, gamifying the experience to increase repurchase frequency.

During beta testing from May 13 to May 28, 2026: only 264 early traders, but two weeks’ trading volume exceeded $400 million, demonstrating high capital turnover efficiency for high-leverage products. Current data only reflect early high-risk appetite users; large-scale deployment remains to be validated in public testing.

While 1,000x leverage seems aggressive, it precisely matches crypto traders’ risk preferences: many investors are willing to accept high volatility for excess returns. This product operates in regulatory gray zones of traditional brokerages. Fee structure is unique: 4% margin fee on opening, up to 50% profit share on closing profits, far above standard perpetual DEX rates of 0.02%–0.07%. All revenue from spot, perpetual, and gaming sectors is allocated 80% to $HOME buybacks per DIP-004 proposal, a deliberate design to align high fee income with token economics; similar to Hyperliquid (which commits 97% of platform fees to buyback tokens, with on-chain transparency). As long as defi.app’s buyback process is transparent on-chain, high fees can create a positive feedback loop of user retention driven by token buybacks, and users may accept premium rates.

五、Key Milestones defi.app Must Achieve

5.1 Verify Retention Capability and Strengthen Platform Trust

The beta involved 264 active high-risk traders; the June 4 public beta is the first major test of general user retention. Whether the current 30k–40k monthly active users can grow steadily is critical.

Robinhood faced similar issues: after the 2021 meme stock craze ended, platform monthly active users plummeted. Later, it added features like credit cards, bank wealth management, and social functions to give users reasons to open the app even without trading needs. Similarly, defi.app relies on crypto-specific products for user acquisition, but long-term retention depends on establishing “trustworthy platform asset custody” in users’ minds. With both strategies in parallel, users develop daily habits, and the product truly matures into a comprehensive financial app.

5.2 Transparent Chain-Wide Token Buyback

$HOME ’s core investment logic is that the platform commits 80% of revenue to token buybacks. However, past projects have often defaulted, making investors highly cautious. If the on-chain actual flow deviates from the promised commitments, platform credibility will quickly collapse.

Hyperliquid solves this simply: buyback operations are automatically executed immediately after fee generation, and each transaction is publicly queryable on-chain. No announcements needed—data speaks for itself.

defi.app’s 80% buyback pledge is highly attractive. If, alongside the public launch of Rocket Perps, the platform reveals the buyback wallet address and launches a real-time earnings dashboard, it will lay the foundation for a trust-driven flywheel similar to Hyperliquid.

六、Conclusion

Robinhood changed the financial experience but remains constrained by regulation. Self-custody, high leverage, and permissionless yield models are still difficult to realize. DeFi aims to break these limits and build a new financial system, but it struggles to retain users. Infrastructure exists, but daily revenue cycles have yet to be established.

defi.app’s goal is precisely to fill this gap: to create experiences in areas where Robinhood cannot operate.

The plan revolves around three aspects: 1) abstracting gas and bridging to eliminate friction; 2) adding features like Rocket Perps to give users reasons to repeatedly engage; 3) incorporating fees into governance-approved $HOME buyback plans linked to actual platform usage.

The defi.app team understands well what attracts users to crypto markets. For users willing to accept crypto’s inherent volatility, Rocket Perps offers an attractive entry point and reasons to keep using. Beyond short-term user acquisition, a deeper question is whether the platform can foster daily habitual use: users earning yields via Earn, accumulating experience points through gaming, and returning not just for rewards but because the app becomes part of their asset management routine.

When this condition is met, defi.app will be more than just another DeFi app—it will become the first industry standard in areas where Robinhood cannot reach.