'Tokenization is Going to Eat the Entire Financial System' Says Robinhood CEO

SINGAPORE — The astir important communicative successful crypto close present is tokenization and it’s coming accelerated to disrupt accepted finance, according to Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev.

Tenev told the assemblage astatine the Token2049 league successful Singapore that tokenization is simply a “freight train” barreling toward the bosom of accepted finance.

“Crypto and accepted concern person been surviving successful abstracted worlds, but they’ll afloat merge. In the future, everything volition beryllium on-chain successful immoderate form, and the favoritism volition disappear,” helium said.

With Robinhood present offering tokenized stocks successful Europe arsenic good arsenic backstage shares successful immoderate of the hottest non-public startups similar OpenAI, the steadfast is betting large connected a aboriginal wherever assets commercialized 24/7, on-chain, and globally.

“In the aforesaid mode that stablecoins person go the default mode to get integer entree to dollars, tokenized stocks volition go the default mode for radical extracurricular the U.S. to get vulnerability to American equities," Tenev said connected stage. "That’s wherefore we launched our banal tokens successful Europe first, it’s the aboriginal of however planetary investors volition clasp U.S. assets.”

Even though galore successful the crypto manufacture person praised the absorption the U.S. is going connected integer plus policy, Tenev said the state needs to play regulatory catch-up to Europe.

There's nary urgency to alteration things – specified arsenic creating regulations to facilitate 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks – due to the fact that the existent strategy works good capable already. Tenev compared it to the deficiency of high-speed trains successful the U.S., thing ubiquitous successful Europe and Asia.

“The biggest situation successful the U.S. is that the fiscal strategy fundamentally works. It’s wherefore we don’t person slug trains — medium-speed trains get you determination good enough," helium said. "So the incremental effort to determination to afloat tokenized volition conscionable instrumentality longer.”

Tokenizing existent estate

Next up for Robinhood is tokenizing existent estate.

Tenev told the assemblage that tokenizing spot is “mechanically” nary antithetic from tokenizing a backstage company, specified arsenic SpaceX oregon OpenAI: you spot the assets into a institution operation and past contented tokens against it.

While OpenAI called the determination to tokenize its backstage shares "unauthorized" and crypto lawyers that spoke to CoinDesk said the determination walked a ineligible tightrope, Tenev dismissed the contention arsenic portion of a broader regulatory lag, arguing that the main hurdles aren’t method but legal.

Europe is already moving ahead, helium said, portion the U.S. volition apt trail, but helium framed existent property arsenic the adjacent logical measurement successful Robinhood’s tokenization propulsion — an plus people that could 1 time beryllium traded arsenic easy arsenic a banal oregon stablecoin.

"Eventually, it’s going to devour the full fiscal system,” Tenev said.