Robinhood CEO believes tokenization will drive the merger of TradFi and crypto

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev stated on Thursday that tokenization is gaining popularity and will rapidly transform traditional ￰1￱ also believes that tokenization will lead to a merger with ￰2￱ pointed out at the Token2049 conference in Singapore that tokenization is a freight train barreling toward the heart of traditional ￰3￱ implied that everything will be on-chain in some form in the future, and the distinction between the traditional finance system and crypto will ￰4￱ offers tokenized stocks in Europe This is what democratizing finance looks like. ICYMI, exposure to ￰5￱ and ETFs are available to European investors, tokenized ￰6￱ info: ￰0￱ ￰7￱ — Vlad Tenev (@vladtenev) July 18, 2025 Robinhood offers tokenized stocks in Europe, as well as private shares in a variety of non-public startups, including ￰8￱ initiative suggests that the firm is betting big on a future where assets trade 24/7, on-chain, and ￰9￱ argued that, just as stablecoins have become the default way to obtain digital access to dollars, tokenized stocks will become the default way for people outside the ￰10￱ gain exposure to American ￰11￱ acknowledged that it was the same approach Robinhood used to launch its stock tokens in Europe first, adding that it’s the future of how global investors will hold ￰12￱ tech executive also urged the ￰13￱ play catch-up in regulatory terms to ￰14￱ also maintained that there’s no urgency to change things, such as creating regulations to facilitate 24/7 trading of tokenized ￰15￱ believes the current system works well enough already and compares it to the lack of high-speed trains in the U.

S., which is common in Europe and Asia. “The biggest challenge in the ￰16￱ that the financial system basically works. It’s why we don’t have bullet trains – medium-speed trains get you there well ￰17￱ the incremental effort to move to fully tokenized will just take longer.” -Vlad Tenev, CEO of ￰18￱ also hinted that Robinhood is planning to tokenize real ￰19￱ told the crowd that tokenizing property is no different from tokenizing a private ￰20￱ property will require placing the asset into a company structure and issuing tokens against ￰21￱ called the move to tokenize its private shares unauthorized, but Tenev dismissed the controversy as part of a broader regulatory lag, saying that the main hurdles aren’t technical but ￰22￱ acknowledged that Europe is already moving ahead, and the ￰23￱ likely ￰24￱ also believes real estate is the next logical step in Robinhood’s tokenization push.

Robinhood’s tokenization initiative comes with legal consequences Florida-based crypto lawyer John Montague said that Robinhood’s plan to democratize private equity with tokenized startup shares could have unintended legal ￰25￱ cited risks of lawsuits, regulatory blowback, and investor losses in the event the platform goes ￰26￱ told news outlets that private companies may sue Robinhood, alleging that tokenization violates their governance documents, shareholders’ agreements, investor right agreements, or ￰27￱ startup Figure AI sent cease-and-desist letters to unnamed brokers in April who were offering the company’s shares on the secondary ￰28￱ firm stated that it does not permit secondary market trading of its shares without board authorization, promising to continue protecting itself against unwanted third-party brokers in the ￰29￱ Commissioner Hester Peirce , without naming Robinhood specifically, stated that tokenized equity offerings are securities and that market participants must adhere to federal securities laws when using these ￰30￱ also maintained that distributors of tokenized securities must consider their disclosure obligations under the federal securities ￰31￱ pointed out that in the event Robinhood went bankrupt, the company would likely not assign any stocks it had in SPV to holders in bankruptcy ￰32￱ also believes that tokenization could inflate a bubble in private markets, as retail demand floods into tokens that offer economic exposure without true ￰33￱ added that he remains optimistic, saying that Robinhood’s initiative is the action the industry needs to force some ￰34￱ said the company is taking a real risk by rolling out tokenized products, but believes the extra liquidity in private stock will benefit the entire ￰35￱ you're reading this, you’re already ￰36￱ there with our newsletter .