Robinhood's Tokenization Pitch to Regulators Sparks Market Rally
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev called on US regulators to set a framework for tokenized stocks, citing the potential for a 'tokenization supercycle'. He argued that America risks being left behind in this global shift if it doesn't adopt blockchain-based versions of ordinary shares.
Tenev's pitch is that tokenization can fix how the market settles and moves shares, reducing collateral demands and enabling real-time trading and faster transfers between brokerages. Tokenized U.S. stocks are already offered to users in over 120 countries, but this service isn't available to Americans due to securities laws.
The entire on-chain tokenized-stock market holds about $2.5 billion of value, according to data platform RWA.xyz. In contrast, Robinhood customers traded a record $956 billion of equities in the second quarter, with revenue climbing 32% year over year to a record $1.31 billion.
Robinhood shares jumped about 14% on Friday, adding around $12 billion in market value. The company isn't waiting for Washington to build the product and is already offering tokenized stocks overseas.