Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev published a detailed argument Tuesday, Aug. 19, calling on U.S. policymakers to update securities rules to permit tokenized stock trading domestically. He described the absence of U.S. Stock Tokens as "one glaring gap" in Robinhood's global tokenization push—a product already live for investors in more than 120 countries but unavailable to Americans.
Robinhood Chain, the company's purpose-built EVM-compatible chain, became the fastest such chain to reach 100 million transactions since its launch. It currently gives international users economic exposure to more than 190 U.S. stocks, each token backed 1:1 by the underlying share. The tokens pass through dividends, though Tenev was explicit that they do not represent direct share ownership under the current structure.
On-chain tokenized equity volume reached $9 billion in 2026, a 207 percent increase quarter-over-quarter and more than 800 percent growth year-to-date. Demand has concentrated in high-momentum names, particularly memory and storage stocks, where international investors are using 24/7 on-chain markets to access exposure that traditional market hours restrict.
Tenev framed the regulatory gap as a structural problem rather than a response to any single agency action. His argument: U.S. investors already have low-cost stock access through platforms like Robinhood, so the tokenization debate in America tends to stall on whether the technology solves a real domestic problem. He pushed back on that framing directly.
The real value of tokenization, Tenev wrote, is not digitizing share certificates—it is rebuilding the ownership infrastructure itself. That means assets that are portable, programmable, self-custodiable and tradable around the clock through an open financial system. "Tokenization is the best path to modernizing the American financial system and expanding the dream of ownership to all—Americans included," he said.
He identified three concrete advantages for American investors: real-time settlement, more resilient markets and native 24/7 trading. Current U.S. equity settlement runs on a T+1 cycle. On-chain settlement is atomic—the transfer of the token and payment happen in the same transaction block with no counterparty exposure window.
The regulatory backdrop is shifting on adjacent fronts. Nasdaq is preparing to introduce an overnight trading session that would extend U.S. stock market hours to nearly 23 hours a day. That expansion falls short of continuous, programmable settlement but reflects the same pressure Tenev identified: global investors in different time zones expect access that U.S. market infrastructure was not designed to provide.
Tenev's competitive framing was pointed. "American investors should benefit from this innovation, too. These are, after all, largely American assets, and American companies like Robinhood are driving much of the innovation," he said.
Robinhood's Stock Tokens sit in a regulatory gray zone domestically. The tokens are fully backed by underlying securities and pass through economic benefits including dividends, but they are structured as synthetic economic exposure rather than registered securities. That distinction currently bars them from the U.S. market—and what Tenev is asking regulators to address.
The on-chain tokenized equity market extends beyond Robinhood. The 800 percent year-to-date volume growth reflects activity across multiple issuers, driven by the same forces compressing traditional brokerage models: fractional ownership, global accessibility and composability with DeFi rails. Capital that once sat idle outside U.S. market hours is finding a home in 24/7 on-chain equity markets.
Tenev's ask to U.S. regulators is specific: modernize securities rules to allow tokenized stocks to trade for American investors on the same infrastructure already serving the rest of the world. Whether the SEC under Chairman Paul Atkins moves on that request—and on what timeline—remains open.
