Global Access or Regulatory Risk? Robinhood Accelerates Crypto-Linked Strategy

Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) is expanding deeper into crypto-linked products and tokenized securities, with CEO Vlad Tenev positioning the strategy as a way to broaden global access to U.S. assets.

Needham analyst John Todaro sees improving crypto activity and new products supporting the company’s growth.

Tenev Defends Robinhood’s Tokenization Strategy

Tenev told CNBC that Robinhood wants to make high-quality U.S. financial assets easier to access globally through stock tokenization.

"What tokenization does is it allows us to distribute access to, uh, U.S. stocks globally," Tenev said.

He said Robinhood Chain and stock tokens provide access to U.S. assets for individuals in more than 120 countries, including markets without strong brokerage infrastructure.

Tenev said the stock tokens are one-to-one backed by underlying shares at the issuer, giving holders economic exposure to those shares.

Robinhood has refined the structure since introducing stock tokens in Europe more than a year ago.

Tenev said Robinhood Chain has also seen growing volumes, partly because users can combine stock tokens with decentralized-finance products.

His comments followed criticism from AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE:AMC) CEO Adam Aron after Robinhood introduced a tokenized version of AMC shares.