Robinhood's OpenAI, Space X Tokens Aren't Just A Gimmick—Here's What's Still To Come

Robinhood HOOD is currently in talks with European Union regulators over its new tokenized equities offering, CEO Vlad Tenev confirmed. He said the firm "welcomes" regulatory scrutiny as part of launching what it sees as a major leap forward in democratizing financial access.

The stock trading app launched tokenized versions of over 200 publicly listed equities across Europe last week, giving users 24/5 access to U.S. stock exposure.

It also introduced non-tradable private stock tokens for OpenAI and SpaceX as part of a promotional giveaway, a first step toward what Tenev described as a broader vision: unlocking access to traditionally exclusive private markets for retail investors.

"We’re confident. We think these [products] are not only important, but they’ll withstand the highest form of scrutiny," said Tenev. "We welcome the discussions with the regulators, as always."

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Tenev confirmed the company is regulated in Lithuania and has already received questions from regulators there about the offering.

"They want to make sure everything is proper because it’s a new innovative offering," he said, adding that the firm is "very aligned" with regulators on ensuring product clarity and compliance.

Robinhood's tokenized equity products are classified as crypto derivatives under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) and MiFID frameworks.

Tenev explained that while the assets are tokenized, they are backed by real exposure to the underlying stock, with a U.S. broker or financial intermediary holding the actual securities.

Tokens are minted when customers acquire shares and burned upon redemption.

Tenev said that after the announcement, Robinhood received a "deluge of inquiries" from private companies interested in tokenizing their shares to reach a broader retail audience.

"Eventually, we'd like to have thousands of private companies on the platform accessible to retail," he said.

While the service is currently live in the EU, it's not yet available in the U.S. or UK. However, Tenev indicated the firm is keen to expand.

"We do believe that the SEC has the authority to make [U.S. tokenization] happen without legislation," he said, referencing recent comments from SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce and Chair Mark Uyeda in favor of exploring tokenization. "We've participated in tokenization roundtables at the SEC," he added.

Tenev acknowledged that the U.S. financial system's existing infrastructure could slow adoption. "We already have something that works. But it's not 24/7," he said. "Tokenization would allow that."

Despite the regulatory complexities, he believes the scale of the opportunity is too large to ignore.

"Tokenization is perhaps the biggest innovation to come into capital markets in the past decade," he said. "Now that you see real products that are useful to customers, I think there's going to be more pressure for industry partners to adopt the technology."

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