Robinhood CEO Calls For Expanded Tokenized Stock Access
Robinhood CEO and Co-Founder Vlad Tenev posted an article on X Tuesday (Aug. 18) calling on U.S. policymakers to update securities laws and regulations to facilitate the use of tokenized stocks.
“Market participants are beginning to move toward blockchain-based systems, but policymakers need to modernize the rules so that we can preserve those protections while enabling fundamentally better infrastructure,” Tenev said in the article. “They need to move quickly. Other jurisdictions will not wait for America to catch up, and getting this right has far-reaching implications.”
Tokenization has entered the mainstream public consciousness over the past year as Robinhood introduced these sorts of products outside the U.S., Tenev said.
Tenev highlighted the launch of the mainnet of Robinhood Chain.
As PYMNTS reported July 1, Robinhood Chain is a Layer 2 blockchain purpose-built for real-world assets.
Tenev said in his article that since its launch, Robinhood Chain has reached 100 million transactions, with Stock Tokens giving people in more than 120 countries economic exposure to more than 190 U.S. stocks, backed 1:1 by underlying shares.
“But there is one glaring gap: Stock Tokens are not yet available in the U.S.,” Tenev said.
Tokenization unlocks several benefits. It enables real-time settlement and makes markets more resilient, enables 24/7 trading for capturing new opportunities and managing risk, gives people more control over their assets and forces financial platforms to compete on price and innovation, Tenev said.
“American investors should benefit from this innovation, too,” Tenev said of tokenization. “These are, after all, largely American assets, and American companies like Robinhood are driving much of the innovation. It would be a strange outcome if the rest of the world could build the future of ownership around American assets while Americans themselves were left behind.”
PYMNTS has reported about some debate around stock tokens.
OpenAI said in a June 30, 2025, post on X that it did not endorse stock tokens and that “any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval—we did not approve any transfer.”
The central bank of Lithuania, which is Robinhood’s main regulator in the European Union, said in July 2025 that it asked Robinhood to clarify the structure of some of its stock tokens.
The World Federation of Exchanges, a United Kingdom-based industry association for exchanges and clearinghouses, said in August 2025 that it was calling for a regulatory crackdown on tokenized stocks because they pose additional risk to investors and could compromise the integrity of the market.
