TLDR Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said uncertainty over US tokenization rules could keep investors from putting serious assets into tokenized stocks. Tenev called the SEC’s innovation exemption a
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev says uncertainty over US tokenization rules could stop investors from moving large amounts of money into tokenized stock markets. He made the comments during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday.
The Securities and Exchange Commission opened a temporary path for onchain stock trading this year through an innovation exemption. Tenev welcomed the move but said it does not go far enough.
“As far as the innovation exemption goes, I think it’s a really positive step,” Tenev said. “I do think more needs to be done to give people a little bit of certainty because as we talk to customers, I think the uncertainty of what happens in five years is likely to be an impediment to, like, putting serious assets onto this technology.”
Tenev said further rules or new laws will be needed to give the market long-term clarity. He added that Robinhood hopes to share more about its own US tokenization plans soon.
“So I still think some rule-making or legislation is going to be necessary, even though, of course, it’s a positive step,” he said.
On private-company stock tokens, Tenev said Robinhood plans to launch those products overseas, depending on regulatory arrangements. In the US, the company is working on a path that fits current accreditation limits.
Robinhood offers about 200 stock tokens on Robinhood Chain. These products are backed by real shares but are set up as tokenized debt securities.
That means holders get economic exposure without the same rights as regular shareholders. Because of this, the tokens fall outside the SEC exemption, which requires equal rights such as dividends and voting.
Tokenized stocks have also faced pushback from traditional companies. Microsoft, Alphabet and Goldman Sachs were among 16 companies that objected to their shares being offered on the proposed OKXICE venue.
AMC CEO Adam Aron has separately criticized Robinhood’s tokenized stock products.
Binance Research projects the tokenized equities market could reach $349 billion by 2030 in its base-case scenario. The market stood at $4.43 billion as of Sept. 15.
Robinhood reported that its cryptocurrency revenue fell 55% year-on-year to $120 million in the third quarter. Crypto notional trading volume dropped 38% to $50 billion.
Trading volume on the Robinhood app fell 48% to $21 billion. Volume on Bitstamp fell 28% to $29 billion.
The company’s prediction market business moved the other way. Event-contract revenue rose sixfold to $173 million.
The number of contracts traded jumped more than sevenfold to 16.4 billion.
Across the whole company, total net revenue rose 12% to a record $1.42 billion. That figure came in below analyst expectations.
Adjusted earnings per share were $0.60, missing estimates by 4 cents.
The post Robinhood CEO Says Tokenized Stock Rules Need More Certainty as Crypto Revenue Falls 55% appeared first on Blockonomi.
