Robinhood's Tenev: Tokenized Equities Are Crypto's Next Phase

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said the next growth phase for digital assets depends on bringing real-world assets onchain, not creating more utility-light memecoins. He spoke during a fireside chat at the Permissionless conference in Salt Lake City on Monday, framing tokenized equities as the bridge between traditional finance and crypto markets.

Robinhood has already launched Stock Tokens for eligible users, letting them trade tokenized equities 24/7. Tenev said the tokens will eventually serve as lending-pool collateral and DeFi collateral, expanding their use beyond simple spot trading.

Tenev's framing is a direct critique of the memecoin cycle that dominated retail activity through much of 2024 and 2025. Tokens without underlying cash flows or legal claims have limited staying power, he said. Real-world assets, by contrast, carry contractual rights including dividends and interest payments that create a floor under demand. The memecoin market has cooled significantly from its peak, with many tokens losing value quickly.

The push puts Robinhood in direct competition with existing tokenization platforms like Securitize and Ondo Finance, which have focused on institutional-grade real-world asset issuance. Robinhood's retail distribution base gives it a different angle. Millions of users who already hold equities in a brokerage account could, in theory, convert those positions into onchain tokens without leaving the app.

The regulatory path is not settled. Tokenized equities that trade 24/7 and settle on blockchain raise questions about custody and clearing, along with securities law questions the SEC has not fully addressed. Robinhood's Stock Tokens are structured as securities under existing broker-dealer rules. The 24/7 trading model tests the boundaries of traditional market hours and settlement cycles. A similar push is underway in other jurisdictions, with UK regulators putting tokenization at the center of payments overhaul.

Tenev did not give a timeline for when Stock Tokens would be available in lending pools or as DeFi collateral. Those steps require integration with external protocols and likely additional regulatory approvals. The company has not disclosed which blockchains the tokens run on or whether they are compatible with major DeFi lending platforms.

The broader tokenization market has grown steadily. It remains small relative to the $150 trillion global equities market. Most issuance so far has been in private credit, real estate, and U.S. Treasuries. Equities tokenization has lagged partly because the settlement infrastructure for stocks is already fast at T+1, and the incremental benefit of blockchain settlement is smaller than for slower asset classes. Other major financial firms are exploring similar tokenization initiatives, including Fidelity and BlackRock, which have launched tokenized money market funds.

Tenev's argument is that the benefit is not settlement speed. It is programmability. A tokenized stock can be used as collateral in a smart contract, allowing traders to borrow against their equity holdings without selling them. It can also be split into fractional shares, making high-priced stocks accessible to smaller investors. Those use cases do not exist for traditional brokerage positions.

For DeFi lenders, tokenized equities offer a new asset class with price discovery from traditional markets, potentially reducing volatility compared to crypto-native collateral. The programmability also opens the door for automated portfolio strategies, such as rebalancing between stocks and stablecoins through smart contracts. Robinhood could also allow users to use Stock Tokens as margin collateral for trading other assets, creating a more integrated ecosystem within the app.

Robinhood's Stock Tokens are available to eligible users in select jurisdictions. The company has not said which countries or states are included.