Robinhood CEO Says Tokenization Best Path to Modernize US Finance

Robinhood Markets Inc. (HOOD) CEO Vlad Tenev sees a major shift underway in how investors own and trade stocks, arguing that global markets are in an early “tokenization supercycle.” Tenev believes tokenization is the best path to modernizing the American financial system as markets move toward an increasingly always-on model.

Tenev said that tokenization is not just about putting stocks on a blockchain but about rebuilding the infrastructure underneath ownership so assets can move as freely as information does on the internet. Since the launch of Robinhood Chain, it has become the fastest Ethereum Virtual Machine chain to reach 100 million transactions, giving people in over 120 countries economic exposure to 190+ U.S. stocks backed 1:1 by underlying shares.

The Kobeissi Letter said in a post on X that total trading volume in on-chain tokenized equities has hit $9 billion in 2026. This marks a new record with growth of over 207% quarter-over-quarter and more than 800% year-to-date.

“This comes amid demand for exposure to high momentum stocks, particularly memory and storage stocks, in a globally accessible 24/7 market,” the market commentary service said.

Tenev noted that the debate around equity tokenization in the U.S. centers on whether it solves a real problem, given Americans already have easy, low-cost access to stocks through platforms such as Robinhood. However, he argued that while Robinhood’s Stock Tokens are fully backed by underlying securities and provide economic exposure including dividends, they do not represent direct share ownership.

“Tokenization is the best path to modernizing the American financial system and expanding the dream of ownership to all–Americans included,” he said. He added that American investors should benefit from this innovation, calling it a strange outcome if the rest of the world could build the future of ownership around American assets while Americans were left behind.

Robinhood Chain is a permissionless, Ethereum-compatible Layer-2 built with Arbitrum technology, focused on tokenized real-world assets, equities and AI-driven financial services. The network supports rapid settlement through 100-millisecond block times.

Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq is planning to launch a nearly 23-hour trading day operating five days a week, with the new schedule expected to start on December 6 pending regulatory approval. It will introduce an overnight session from 9:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. ET, creating a continuous weekly trading cycle from Sunday at 9:00 p.m. to Friday at 8:00 p.m. ET.

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