Memecoins vs stock tokens: what the return data shows

How memecoins vs stock tokens returns are computed

Return here means the percentage change in a token's pool price across the stated window, measured in the pool's quote asset, computed from Locksley's index of Robinhood Chain pools. Nothing is annualized. Nothing is weighted by pool size. Nothing is adjusted for pools that stopped trading inside the window. Every figure below is read at page load, so the table is current whenever you happen to be reading it.

As of —pending, those medians are computed across —pending indexed pairs on Robinhood Chain, per Locksley's contract reads. The rest of the chain-level figures sit on Robinhood Chain by the numbers.

The two numbers are not measuring the same thing

A memecoin's price is whatever its liquidity pool says at that second. Buy pressure moves it, a large sell moves it back, and depth decides how far either goes. There is no closing bell and no reference price outside the pool.

A stock token prices against an underlying instrument that keeps market hours, so its pool sits idle across nights, weekends and holidays and then re-prices in a step. Two mechanisms are unpacked in how stock tokens actually work and trading hours: stock tokens vs memes. Both categories trade through the same wallet and the same routing — the mechanics are in buying tokens on Robinhood Chain.

The practical consequence: a 30-day change for a memecoin covers every hour of those thirty days, while the same window for a stock token covers about twenty market sessions with the rest of the clock closed. The label is identical. The measurement is not.

Correlation is not causation here

The table places two outcomes next to each other. It does not explain either one. If one category shows a higher median over a window, the category did not cause that number. The sample changes every day as pools are created and abandoned, the two groups launched at different times into different conditions, and pool depth differs by an order of magnitude between a thin new pool and an established one.

Nothing in this data forecasts the next window, and a completed 30-day change tells you what a pool did, not what it will do. Treat the table as a description of a past window, computed from on-chain state, and nothing further.

Survivorship moves both columns

A pool that stops trading stops producing prices. Any return series built only from pools that still exist quietly excludes the ones that did not make it, which pushes a median up for reasons that have nothing to do with performance.

That is why the survival row sits inside the same table rather than in a footnote. Read the median and the survival share together: a median computed across a set where most pools drained is describing the remainder, not the category. The memecoin list and the stock token list show what is currently trading in each set.

Which set answers your question

If you are trying to understand how a category behaves — how wide the swings run, how fast liquidity leaves, what a typical window looks like — the memecoin set is the one with enough events to show a distribution. Memes vs stock tokens covers the mechanical differences before any number enters the picture.

If you are trying to understand pricing against an outside reference, the stock token set is the only one on the chain that has one. Neither set produces a recommendation, and this page does not make one.

Frequently asked questions