Written September 6, 2026 from the routes we use. Getting money onto Robinhood Chain is a two-minute job once you know which route matches where your money is now. Getting it back out is just as quick, with one trap: the official Ethereum bridge takes seven days to leave and needs a second transaction you have to send yourself. This guide covers every route in, every route out, what each costs, and what arrives on the other side.
Quick answer: If your ETH or USDC is already in MetaMask on any EVM network, use MetaMask's Bridge tab with Robinhood Chain as the destination; it settles in seconds to minutes. If you trade with BasedBot, its bridge command does the same from Telegram. Bridge some of the value as ETH for gas. To leave, bridge back to Base or Arbitrum with the same tool and withdraw to your exchange from there. Only use the canonical Arbitrum bridge if you want to hold on Ethereum and can wait a week.
Gas on Robinhood Chain is paid in native ETH on Robinhood Chain. ETH on Base is not ETH here, and WETH is a different token. Whatever you bridge, make sure a few dollars of it arrives as plain ETH, or the first thing you try to do on the chain will fail. The main Robinhood Chain guide covers what happens after the money lands.
Every route in, at a glance
Robinhood's documentation lists one canonical bridge and a set of third-party routes. The aggregator wallets and bots sit on top of the third-party set and pick the best quote for you.
| Route | Start from | Time | Fee layer | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MetaMask Bridge | ETH or USDC on any EVM network in MetaMask | Seconds to a few minutes | MetaMask's bridge fee plus the route's own fee, shown in the quote | Most readers. One wallet, no new app. |
| BasedBot bridge | ETH or USDC in your BasedBot wallet on a supported chain | Seconds to a few minutes | Route fee in the quote; the bot's 1% applies to trades, not bridges | People who trade from Telegram and want funds in the bot wallet directly |
| Across, Relay, LI.FI, Stargate direct | 13+ chains including Solana for Across and Relay | About two seconds (Across) to minutes | Route fee only | Coming from Solana, or shaving the wallet's fee on a large transfer |
| Robinhood Wallet cross-chain swap | Assets in Robinhood Wallet on Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Arbitrum, Base or Optimism | Longer than a same-chain swap; Robinhood says timing is hard to predict | 0.73% wallet fee plus 0.05% to 0.12% provider fee | Readers already in Robinhood Wallet who want to stay there |
| Canonical Arbitrum bridge | Ethereum mainnet only | About 10 minutes in, 7 days plus a claim out | Ethereum gas both ways; no bridge fee | Large amounts from Ethereum when you don't need speed |
What arrives matters as much as how fast. Across, for example, delivers USDC from other chains as USDG, the Paxos dollar that is Robinhood Chain's main stablecoin, and turns USDG back into USDC on the way out. That is normal and expected on this chain; USDG is what most pools are quoted in alongside WETH. Check the "you receive" line of any quote for the asset name, not just the number.
Pick your starting point
Starting with cash
Buy ETH or USDC on the exchange you already use and withdraw it to your own wallet on the cheapest network the exchange offers. Base and Arbitrum are usually the cheapest to withdraw to, and both bridge to Robinhood Chain in seconds. Send a small test withdrawal first. Then follow the MetaMask or BasedBot steps below. No exchange we checked lets you withdraw directly to Robinhood Chain yet, so the wallet-then-bridge step is not optional.
Starting with crypto on an exchange
Same as above without the purchase. Pick the withdrawal network the exchange supports for that asset; an exchange that offers ETH on Ethereum has not necessarily enabled it on Arbitrum. Match the network to what your wallet is set to before you press withdraw.
Starting with crypto in a wallet on another EVM chain
This is the easy case. MetaMask Bridge or BasedBot's bridge takes it from here in one transaction.
Starting on Solana
Across and Relay both list Solana as a source for Robinhood Chain. Bridge USDC or SOL through either interface and you receive USDG or ETH on Robinhood Chain. Robinhood Wallet's cross-chain swap covers Solana too. A Solana-to-Robinhood transfer moves between two different wallet standards, so the destination address is your EVM address, not your Solana one.
Route 1: MetaMask Bridge, step by step
- Add Robinhood Chain if MetaMask hasn't already. Settings, Networks, Add network, then the mainnet details: chain ID 4663, currency ETH, RPC
https://rpc.mainnet.chain.robinhood.com, explorerhttps://robinhoodchain.blockscout.com. Chain ID 46630 is the testnet; if a tutorial gives you that, it is old. - Open Bridge. On the extension home screen it is the Bridge button next to Swap; on mobile it is under the same actions row. MetaMask pulls quotes from several bridge aggregators and shows them side by side.
- Set the route. Source network and asset (say, ETH on Base), destination network Robinhood Chain, destination asset ETH. Enter the amount.
- Read the quote, not the rate. Expand the quote to see the estimated time, the total fee and, most importantly, the amount you receive. MetaMask charges its own percentage on top of the route's fee; both are inside that received amount. Quotes refresh every minute.
- Confirm and wait. The source-chain transaction confirms first, then the destination fill. The bridge status stays visible in the activity tab until the funds land.
- Switch networks to see it. If the balance seems missing, MetaMask is showing you a different network. Select Robinhood Chain in the network picker.
For USDC, pick USDG or ETH as the destination asset depending on what you want to do first. If you plan to trade immediately, bringing part of it as ETH saves a swap.
Route 2: BasedBot's bridge, step by step
BasedBot creates a wallet per chain and has supported Robinhood Chain since the chain's first block, including bridging and transfers. Its documentation describes the bridge as the way to move your balance between the networks it supports.
- Fund the bot wallet on a chain it supports. The bot shows a deposit address per chain. Send ETH or USDC to the address for the chain your funds are on, from your exchange or your own wallet.
- Open the bridge. From the main menu choose Bridge, pick the source chain and the destination, Robinhood Chain, and the amount.
- Confirm the quote. The bot shows what arrives; check the asset and the amount. There is no bot fee on the bridge itself, only on trades.
- Switch the bot's active chain to Robinhood Chain. The balance appears there once the fill lands, usually within a minute or two.
Remember what the bot is: it holds the key to that wallet. Keep the trading balance there, not your long-term holdings, and export the private key to somewhere safe the first day.
Route 3: the canonical bridge, and why it is mostly for leaving
Robinhood documents a canonical bridge built on Arbitrum's system at the Arbitrum bridge portal, with Ethereum as the source. Its security comes from Ethereum rather than third-party validators, which is the reason to use it for large amounts. Its mechanics are what make it unsuitable for a trading balance:
- Deposits from Ethereum confirm in about ten minutes. A deposit that fails on the way can be redeemed manually within seven days.
- Withdrawals to Ethereum go through a seven-day challenge period, and then you have to claim them on Ethereum in a second transaction, paying Ethereum gas. The money does not appear on its own when the week ends.
For a trading balance, use the aggregator routes in both directions. For moving a large sum to cold storage on Ethereum, the canonical route is the one with no third-party bridge risk, and the seven days are the price of that.
Getting out
- Sell into ETH or USDG on the chain. Whichever the bridge route wants; USDG is the stablecoin the routes carry out as USDC.
- Bridge to Base or Arbitrum with MetaMask Bridge or BasedBot, same as coming in but with the networks swapped. Seconds to minutes.
- Check the exchange's deposit page for that exact asset on that exact network before sending, then send a small test deposit.
- Deposit, sell to fiat, withdraw to your bank.
Selling a token for ETH or USDG, and bridging USDG into USDC, can both be taxable disposals depending on where you live. Log the amounts and hashes as you go; the journal template has the columns.
What a round trip costs
| Leg | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Exchange withdrawal to Base or Arbitrum | The exchange's flat withdrawal fee, often under a dollar on layer-2s |
| Bridge in via aggregator | Route fee plus the wallet's or bot's markup, usually a fraction of a percent, plus source-chain gas |
| Gas on Robinhood Chain | Well under a dollar per transaction |
| Bridge out via aggregator | Same as bridging in |
| Canonical bridge out | No bridge fee, but Ethereum gas for the withdrawal and again for the claim, and seven days |
The one comparison worth doing yourself: paste the same amount into MetaMask Bridge and BasedBot's bridge at the same time and compare the received amounts. The difference on a $500 transfer is usually a dollar or two either way. The difference between an aggregator and the canonical bridge is seven days, which is worth far more than that on a trading balance.
When the bridge seems to have eaten your money
The general version of this table, for any chain and any exchange, is the transfer-not-arrived page.
| Symptom | Check this first |
|---|---|
| The source transaction confirmed but nothing arrived | Switch your wallet to Robinhood Chain; balances are per network. Then check the bridge's status page with your source transaction hash. |
| USDC left, something called USDG arrived | That is the route working as designed. USDG is the Paxos dollar and the chain's main stablecoin. |
| Balance is there but every transaction fails | You have no native ETH on Robinhood Chain for gas. Bridge a small amount as ETH, or swap a little USDG for ETH. |
| Sent to Robinhood Chain from an exchange directly | Exchanges do not support the network; the withdrawal should have been rejected. If it went through on a different network, the funds are on that network at the same address. Check each network. |
| Canonical withdrawal "stuck" after a week | It needs the claim transaction on Ethereum. Open the bridge portal, find the withdrawal, and claim it with ETH for gas in your Ethereum wallet. |
| Bridge quote much lower than expected | Low route liquidity or high source-chain gas at that moment. Wait a few minutes and re-quote, or try a different source asset or network. |
How FullSwing is paid
The BasedBot links in this guide are FullSwing referral links; using one costs you nothing and FullSwing receives a share of the bot's trading fee. MetaMask, Across, Relay and the Arbitrum bridge are plain links. No token is recommended on this page.
Official sources
- Robinhood Chain documentation: bridging (canonical and third-party routes)
- Robinhood Chain documentation: network settings
- Robinhood support: Robinhood Wallet swap and cross-chain swap fees
- Across: bridging to Robinhood Chain (USDC to USDG, 13 source chains)
- MetaMask Help Center: how to use the bridge
- BasedBot documentation: bridge
- Arbitrum bridge portal: Robinhood Chain (canonical bridge)
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