Robinhood CEO Tenev pushes SEC to open US to tokenized stocks

Vlad Tenev wants tokenized stocks trading in the US, and on Tuesday he made the case in writing, according to The Defiant. The Robinhood CEO posted a lengthy essay describing the absence of US Stock Tokens as "one glaring gap" in the company's tokenization push. The piece arrived five days after the Securities and Exchange Commission pulled a scheduled discussion of its innovation exemption, the relief that would let blockchain venues trade tokenized equities outside current market-structure rules.

The exemption has been shelved twice. The SEC set it aside in May, then did so again on Aug. 13 after the White House warned the carve-out could complicate Digital Asset Market Clarity Act negotiations. SIFMA, the trade group for the securities industry, argued that a change of this size belongs in formal rulemaking rather than an exemption. In effect, the shelving leaves no active US venue for tokenized equities.

Robinhood's stake in the market it wants opened is modest. RWA.xyz counts $32.2 million in Stock Tokens across 191 assets, or 1.34 percent of the $2.4 billion tokenized equity sector. Ondo leads with $882.9 million, Kraken's xStocks holds $561.7 million, and Binance's bStocks holds $532.2 million. Together those four issuers hold roughly $2.0 billion. Robinhood's supply doubled over the past 30 days, the fastest growth among the top six issuers.

Tenev's argument rests on real-time settlement, round-the-clock trading, and portability. He returned to the January 2021 GameStop episode, when clearinghouse collateral demands tied to two-day settlement forced Robinhood to restrict buying. Onchain settlement, he argues, removes that pressure at the moment markets are most stressed.

Robinhood already runs 24/5 US trading by stringing together exchanges and alternative trading systems. On a blockchain, Tenev wrote, 24/7 trading and fractional ownership come built in. Self-custody would allow holders to move positions between platforms instantly, a process that takes days over legacy ACAT rails, and to lend or post those positions as collateral in DeFi.

Robinhood Stock Tokens are backed one-for-one by underlying shares and pass through dividends, but holders do not own the shares themselves. Tenev said the token design will evolve toward instruments carrying the full rights of traditional shares as regulatory frameworks mature. Robinhood Chain, the Arbitrum-based Layer 2 launched July 1 at the company's London event, reached 100 million transactions in roughly three weeks. Stock Tokens now cover more than 190 US equities across more than 120 countries.

The White House and SIFMA have both said the change is too consequential to be handled through the exemption process. Tenev's ask is formal rulemaking that gives tokenized equities a recognized place in US market structure. That is a market-structure argument dressed as crypto policy.

He closed by pointing at private company shares, where the accredited investor standard still locks most Americans out. That is a separate regulatory fight, but part of the same ask: tokenized instruments that reach ordinary investors. No congressional timeline is confirmed in the reporting; the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act negotiations are the active vehicle in view, and the SEC's exemption process has failed twice. Robinhood's token supply doubled in a month, and the commercial pressure to close the domestic gap is not fading.