Robinhood CEO: Uncertainty in U.S. Tokenization Regulation Makes It Difficult for Large Assets to Enter the Market

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev stated during the third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday that there is uncertainty about whether the U.S. tokenization rules can be sustained in the long term, which may hinder investors from allocating large assets into the tokenized market. He described the five-year innovation exemption granted by the SEC in September as "a very positive step," but emphasized that further rule-making or legislation is needed to bring long-term regulatory certainty.

Tenev noted that the uncertainty about the direction of the rules in five years is likely to become a barrier to allocating large assets to this technology when communicating with clients. Tokenized stocks have previously faced resistance from traditional issuers, with 16 companies including Microsoft, Alphabet, and Goldman Sachs opposing their stocks being listed on the proposed OKXICE platform. AMC CEO Adam Aron has also publicly criticized Robinhood's tokenized stock products.

Robinhood currently offers about 200 stock tokens on the Robinhood Chain, backed by the underlying stocks, but constructed in the form of tokenized debt securities, providing only economic exposure without dividend and voting rights, thus falling outside the SEC's innovation exemption that requires rights parity. Tenev stated that tokenized stocks of private companies will be launched overseas, while seeking a path that complies with accredited investor restrictions within the United States. Binance Research's baseline scenario predicts that the market size could reach $34.9 billion by 2030, with approximately $4.43 billion as of September 15.