Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev: Tokenization will take over the entire financial system

CNBC. (2026, August 19). Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev: Tokenization will take over the entire financial system. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/08/19/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenev-tokenization-will-take-over-the-entire-financial-system.html

• Tenev stated that tokenization is at the beginning of a super cycle and will take over the entire financial system.

• Robinhood launched Robinhood Chain, its crypto blockchain, outside the United States a month prior to the interview, with stock tokens included as a primitive giving tokenized exposure to US stocks.

• The stock token offering started at 90 tokens and has grown to 190, which trade 24/7, can be moved around the blockchain like Bitcoin or any other crypto asset, and provide exposure to US stocks for people in over 120 countries.

• Tenev described the US tokenization debate as split into two camps, enthusiasts asking when the capability arrives domestically and skeptics who point to existing access through products like Robinhood that already offer fractional shares and 24/5 trading.

• The infrastructure supporting 24/7 trading, portability, and instant settlement becomes more advantageous than traditional financial services when extended to asset classes where liquidity and access are more challenging, with private companies as the main example.

• Tenev identified the absence of good exchanges and market infrastructure for private companies as a problem tokenization can address by moving that activity onto a blockchain where a liquid global market already exists.

• Tenev said innovation must be balanced with investor protection, argued that the economic value created by private AI companies and firms such as SpaceX has largely accrued without ordinary individual investors being able to participate, and cited Robinhood's tokenization initiatives outside the US and Robinhood Ventures within the US as its responses.

Knote: I'm not sure that tokenization of public equity is solving a major pain point right now (but perhaps a minor one), but I am 100% behind tokenization of private assets.