Robinhood CEO calls for the establishment of a legal framework for tokenized stocks in the US

Robinhood Markets CEO Vlad Tenev is calling on US regulators to establish a legal framework for tokenized stocks, arguing that the global financial markets have entered the early stages of a "hyper-cryptocurrency cycle."

9/1/20264 min read

Payment delays as a systemic limitation.

Tenev's citation of GameStop's trading restrictions is the most important element in his argument for tokenizing assets, because it points to a specific structural flaw that tokenized asset settlement would address, rather than just a general statement about efficiency. In the January 2021 event, Robinhood's clearinghouse, the National Securities Clearing Corporation, required Robinhood to significantly increase its collateral to address settlement risk from client trades in GameStop and other heavily shorted stocks. Because stock settlements in the U.S. operate on a T+1 or previously T+2 basis, meaning trades aren't finally settled until one or two business days after execution, the clearinghouse holds counterparty risk for that period and requires collateral proportional to that risk.

When volatility spiked, collateral requirements increased significantly, and Robinhood restricted trading in affected securities instead of adding capital, causing public outrage, congressional hearings, and lasting reputational damage. Tenev's argument is that immediate settlement completely eliminates the settlement risk period, removing the collateral requirement that caused the restriction and preventing the structural circumstances that led to it. This is a more accurate and well-founded argument than common arguments about the effectiveness of faster settlement, because it identifies a specific market event where a delay in settlement produced a clearly detrimental outcome.

The securities trading activity is coded.

Tenev's lobbying efforts carry the weight of a company already operating a product it's seeking authorization for from US regulators. Robinhood launched equity tokens and ETFs to eligible customers in Europe in June 2025, initially comprising over 200 US stocks and funds, with holders of equity tokens receiving dividend payments. The tokens initially operated on Arbitrum before Robinhood planned to migrate to Robinhood Chain, the company's own Layer 2 Ethereum, which launched its public mainnet in a London event in mid-2026.

The offering has expanded significantly. Tenev described in an interview with CNBC on August 19th that the stock token product started with 90 tokens and has grown to 190, all traded 24/7, transferable on-chain like Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency asset, and providing access to US stocks for users in over 120 countries. Other sources cite the EU and EEA having over 2,000 blockchain-based stock tokens, reflecting the difference in how the total number of available tokens is measured versus actively traded tokens or the expansion between reporting periods.

The commercial position taken is quite unusual for a legal lobbying campaign: Robinhood isn't asking regulators to approve a hypothetical product, but rather to allow US investors access to a product Robinhood already offers to investors in 120 other countries, providing a concrete basis for an argument that abstract policy debates about tokenization often lack.

SEC Innovation Exemption and Legal Pathway

The legal path Tenev is advocating has two potential directions, both currently underway and neither yet resolved. The SEC is developing a new waiver that would allow select platforms to trade tokenized securities around the clock under revised legal requirements, with SEC Chairman Paul Atkins signaling support for using the Commission's waiver to accelerate on-chain activity while maintaining federal securities oversight. The status of that waiver is described in articles about Tenev's statement as stalled, with no confirmed timeline for its issuance.

The alternative pathway is the CLARITY Act, with provisions on market structure that would establish a legal framework for tokenized securities along with a broader digital asset legal architecture. A day after Tenev's post, the White House urged Congress to pass the CLARITY Act at a meeting with cryptocurrency executives, adding further political momentum to the bill, which had stalled in a Senate ethics dispute since before the August recess.

Additionally, the SEC proposed a Crypto Assets Regulation on August 18th, the same day as Tenev's post, establishing a separate offering regime for cryptocurrency investment contracts, although that proposal focuses on the offering aspect rather than the trading, custody, and exchange issues that tokenized equity trading would require.

Assessment and Conclusion

In an interview with CNBC, Tenev described the debate over asset tokenization in the U.S. as a divide between two camps: supporters question when this capability will be rolled out domestically, while skeptics point out that Americans already have efficient access to the U.S. stock market through existing brokerage products, including Robinhood's traditional stock trading, and question the benefits of asset tokenization beyond improved payment speeds.

The skeptics' viewpoint has solid grounds for domestic American investors: an American investor using Robinhood's traditional stock trading platform already has access to commission-free U.S. stocks with T+1 settlement times, fractional shares, and extended trading hours. The minor benefit of the crypto versions of those same securities is the speed of settlement and 24/7 access, not direct access.

Supporters argue that improvements in payments and accessibility are significant for institutional users managing collateral, for cross-border investors facing barriers to brokerage accounts, and for the synergistic capabilities that on-chain securities allow with DeFi protocols, lending markets, and automated financial products that traditional securities cannot access. Which theoretical framework prevails in the SEC's exemption analysis and in Congressional discussions of the CLARITY Act will determine whether tokenized stocks reach U.S. retail investors in 2026, 2027, or later.

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