June 30, 2025 • 7 mins
Robinhood CEO and co-founder Vlad Tenev says he expects crypto and traditional finance merging and announces the company is expanding into the EU. He speaks to hosts Romaine Bostick and Scarlet Fu.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Robinhood sharees are trading at record highs after the brokerage
introduce a suite of new products at its first ever
international and crypto focused event in the South of France.
Let's bring in now Robinhood, CEO and co founder of
lad Tenet, who joins US now from can lad. You
are now offering tokenized US securities to customers outside the US,
particularly in Europe where you are. How is this different
from exchange traded products that are already available to investors
(00:30):
in Europe. What do the tokenized versions of these products
offer that existing products don't.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, I mean what we really announced in the EU is,
first we're expanding and we're live now in thirty one
countries across the continent, and we're solving two things with
our tokenized with our stock tokens. One is giving our
EU customers exposure to US equities, which is something which
(00:58):
is one of the most requested feed The second is
really demonstrating the beginnings of what we believe is the
future of the financial system. We think that crypto in
traditional finance will eventually fully merge and the technology will
underpin any tradable asset, and you'll get the liquidity and
the twenty four to seven trading of cryptocurrency applied to
(01:23):
traditional assets, which I think is a very powerful thing.
It's useful for public stocks and also private stocks, which
we have the ability to tokenize as well.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Now you're developing your own blockchain to record transactions for
token is stocks. What's the timeline for that to be
rolled out?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, that's right. Well, it's live today on Arbitrum. So
we've been working with the folks on Arbitrum, which is
an Ethereum layer two, for the initial release of our
stock tokens in Europe. But we have been working on
our own chain, the Robinhood chain, and we've been hard
at work. We'd like to have that powering the underlying
(02:03):
infrastructure and all the DeFi elements. We wanted to be
the best chain optimized for real world assets, which I
think is an important niche that's missing in the market,
and for that it has to be secure. Basically military
grade security has to be fast, low cost. So we
felt like that didn't really exist and so we're excited
(02:27):
to bring that to market.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I am curious flat about the idea of staking, particularly
here in the US obviously a program I believe starting
today if I have that correct, and also certainly some
appetite for that amongst European investors. And I'm wondering how,
if at all, those two elements in the US and
Europe would differ or be the same.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, I mean, we announced a lot of new products.
You mentioned Staking, which has been live in the European
Union for our customers here for many months, and it's
actually been the number one most requested feature in the US.
So now that's live, and I think it's two things
that are interesting for Staking. One is from a practical standpoint,
(03:12):
it allows holders in the US to earn yield on
their Ethereum and Solana and expanding to hopefully any stakable
asset in the future. But also, crypto is all about
us coming together individually and collectively to secure the network
and the blockchain. So the participant, the individual, is really
the network, and Staking allows that to be opened up
(03:35):
to the millions of customers on robinhood. So that's what
makes it so exciting for us.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I am curious as we start to see this ecosystem,
the broader crypto ecosystem evolve and more importantly expand, and
you kind of pointed out in your previous response this
idea that sort of the DeFi world and the traditional
finance world are starting to overlap in that Ven diagram,
and I am curious as to what your ambitions are
for Robinhood. Is this a more of a move of
(04:03):
a ship where that Ben diagram for Robinhood looks more
like traditional finance or something in between.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Yeah. Two things. One is I think this is the
year and the time is now for crypto to move
beyond bitcoin and mean coins and introduce fundamental utility. And
that's why we're most excited about tokenization of real world assets,
real world assets with utility being live on blockchains and
(04:35):
taking getting the benefit from everything that crypto technology has
to offer. That's one. Two. We think in the future
crypto and traditional financial services will fully merge and crypto
will become the infrastructure layer behind all kinds of financial services,
(04:56):
from payments, which are starting to see with stable coins,
to holding deposits, which has been the realm of traditional
checking and savings accounts. So you'll have stable coins that
pay interest in the future, including USDG, which is the
stable coin that we've helped create, and then of course
investments with tokenized private shares, equity stock tokens as well.
(05:23):
What you're starting to see is the entire financial system
being possible to build on crypto technology. And what we
can do is show what the world looks like if
we rebuild Robinhood entirely on crypto technology. And I think
that's what we're starting to demonstrate.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, let's take a little bit of a step back here,
because you have talked about how the US is finally
ready to catch up to the rest of the world
when it comes to being a big player in the
crypto world. But what needs to happen? What's the missing
ingrediment now for the US to become the true backbone
of the global financial system when it comes to corporating crypto.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, I think the bills that are making their way
through Congress, the Genius Bill and the Market Structure Bill,
are a great step in the right direction. As for tokenization,
we actually believe that there doesn't need to be a
just additional legislation. The SEC has the mandate, the authority
(06:22):
to make tokenization of securities happen, and they're keen to
do it. You know, they've posted a roundtable our crypto
GM Johann was a part of it on tokenization, and
I think that it's going to happen in the not
too distant future. Private companies require reform of the accreditation standards,
which currently shut eighty plus percent of the population out.
(06:46):
So that needs to be completely reformed. But there's actually appetite.
Several members of Congress are interested in taking that on,
and I believe we can make significant progress on reforming
the accreditation standards as well. It's crazy that these companies
like Opening Eye and SpaceX can be worth hundreds of billions,
(07:08):
can get so much appreciation in the private markets, and
retail is essentially a shut out from that. So that's
that's something that we'd like to fix with our technology
as well.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
All Right, well, you guys have already made a lot
of progress toward that. Glad really appreciate you taking the time. Also,
love to suit there. I'll let you get back to
it fresh off this.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Thanks.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Robinhood sharees are trading at record highs after the brokerage
introduce a suite of new products at its first ever
international and crypto focused event in the South of France.
Let's bring in now Robinhood, CEO and co founder of
lad Tenet, who joins US now from can lad. You
are now offering tokenized US securities to customers outside the US,
particularly in Europe where you are. How is this different
from exchange traded products that are already available to investors
(00:30):
in Europe. What do the tokenized versions of these products
offer that existing products don't.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, I mean what we really announced in the EU is,
first we're expanding and we're live now in thirty one
countries across the continent, and we're solving two things with
our tokenized with our stock tokens. One is giving our
EU customers exposure to US equities, which is something which
(00:58):
is one of the most requested feed The second is
really demonstrating the beginnings of what we believe is the
future of the financial system. We think that crypto in
traditional finance will eventually fully merge and the technology will
underpin any tradable asset, and you'll get the liquidity and
the twenty four to seven trading of cryptocurrency applied to
(01:23):
traditional assets, which I think is a very powerful thing.
It's useful for public stocks and also private stocks, which
we have the ability to tokenize as well.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Now you're developing your own blockchain to record transactions for
token is stocks. What's the timeline for that to be
rolled out?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, that's right. Well, it's live today on Arbitrum. So
we've been working with the folks on Arbitrum, which is
an Ethereum layer two, for the initial release of our
stock tokens in Europe. But we have been working on
our own chain, the Robinhood chain, and we've been hard
at work. We'd like to have that powering the underlying
(02:03):
infrastructure and all the DeFi elements. We wanted to be
the best chain optimized for real world assets, which I
think is an important niche that's missing in the market,
and for that it has to be secure. Basically military
grade security has to be fast, low cost. So we
felt like that didn't really exist and so we're excited
(02:27):
to bring that to market.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I am curious flat about the idea of staking, particularly
here in the US obviously a program I believe starting
today if I have that correct, and also certainly some
appetite for that amongst European investors. And I'm wondering how,
if at all, those two elements in the US and
Europe would differ or be the same.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, I mean, we announced a lot of new products.
You mentioned Staking, which has been live in the European
Union for our customers here for many months, and it's
actually been the number one most requested feature in the US.
So now that's live, and I think it's two things
that are interesting for Staking. One is from a practical standpoint,
(03:12):
it allows holders in the US to earn yield on
their Ethereum and Solana and expanding to hopefully any stakable
asset in the future. But also, crypto is all about
us coming together individually and collectively to secure the network
and the blockchain. So the participant, the individual, is really
the network, and Staking allows that to be opened up
(03:35):
to the millions of customers on robinhood. So that's what
makes it so exciting for us.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I am curious as we start to see this ecosystem,
the broader crypto ecosystem evolve and more importantly expand, and
you kind of pointed out in your previous response this
idea that sort of the DeFi world and the traditional
finance world are starting to overlap in that Ven diagram,
and I am curious as to what your ambitions are
for Robinhood. Is this a more of a move of
(04:03):
a ship where that Ben diagram for Robinhood looks more
like traditional finance or something in between.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Yeah. Two things. One is I think this is the
year and the time is now for crypto to move
beyond bitcoin and mean coins and introduce fundamental utility. And
that's why we're most excited about tokenization of real world assets,
real world assets with utility being live on blockchains and
(04:35):
taking getting the benefit from everything that crypto technology has
to offer. That's one. Two. We think in the future
crypto and traditional financial services will fully merge and crypto
will become the infrastructure layer behind all kinds of financial services,
(04:56):
from payments, which are starting to see with stable coins,
to holding deposits, which has been the realm of traditional
checking and savings accounts. So you'll have stable coins that
pay interest in the future, including USDG, which is the
stable coin that we've helped create, and then of course
investments with tokenized private shares, equity stock tokens as well.
(05:23):
What you're starting to see is the entire financial system
being possible to build on crypto technology. And what we
can do is show what the world looks like if
we rebuild Robinhood entirely on crypto technology. And I think
that's what we're starting to demonstrate.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, let's take a little bit of a step back here,
because you have talked about how the US is finally
ready to catch up to the rest of the world
when it comes to being a big player in the
crypto world. But what needs to happen? What's the missing
ingrediment now for the US to become the true backbone
of the global financial system when it comes to corporating crypto.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, I think the bills that are making their way
through Congress, the Genius Bill and the Market Structure Bill,
are a great step in the right direction. As for tokenization,
we actually believe that there doesn't need to be a
just additional legislation. The SEC has the mandate, the authority
(06:22):
to make tokenization of securities happen, and they're keen to
do it. You know, they've posted a roundtable our crypto
GM Johann was a part of it on tokenization, and
I think that it's going to happen in the not
too distant future. Private companies require reform of the accreditation standards,
which currently shut eighty plus percent of the population out.
(06:46):
So that needs to be completely reformed. But there's actually appetite.
Several members of Congress are interested in taking that on,
and I believe we can make significant progress on reforming
the accreditation standards as well. It's crazy that these companies
like Opening Eye and SpaceX can be worth hundreds of billions,
(07:08):
can get so much appreciation in the private markets, and
retail is essentially a shut out from that. So that's
that's something that we'd like to fix with our technology
as well.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
All Right, well, you guys have already made a lot
of progress toward that. Glad really appreciate you taking the time. Also,
love to suit there. I'll let you get back to
it fresh off this.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Thanks.
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