Robinhood’s Tenev warns US tokenization uncertainty deters ‘serious assets’

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev says uncertainty over the longevity of US tokenization rules could prevent investors from committing substantial assets to tokenized markets, despite the securities regulator opening a temporary path for onchain stock trading this year. 

Speaking during Robinhood’s third-quarter earnings call Tuesday, Tenev welcomed the SEC’s innovation exemption but said further rulemaking or legislation would be needed to provide longer-term regulatory certainty. 

“As far as the innovation exemption goes, I think it’s a really positive step... I do think more needs to be done to give people a little bit of certainty because as we talk to customers, I think the uncertainty of what happens in five years is likely to be an impediment to, like, putting serious assets onto this technology.”

Tokenized stock offerings have faced resistance from traditional issuers. Microsoft, Alphabet and Goldman Sachs were among 16 companies that objected to their shares being offered on the proposed OKXICE venue, while AMC CEO Adam Aron separately criticized Robinhood’s tokenized stock products. 

Despite the regulatory uncertainty, Binance Research projects that the tokenized equities market could grow to $349 billion by 2030 under its base-case scenario, from $4.43 billion as of Sept. 15.