Robinhood CEO Predicts Tokenization of Private Companies Will Be Ubiquitous, Compares It to a Freight Train That ‘Can’t Be Stopped’

The chief executive of retail trading giant Robinhood is predicting that the tokenization of private businesses will be pervasive, comparing it to a runaway train.

In a new interview with CNBC International, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev says he envisions a world where all private businesses are tokenized during the next five to 10 years, comparing it to a freight train with momentum that “can’t be stopped.”

“Tokenization of private companies is still quite early. So what we demonstrated in Europe is that the technology works and we did it in the form of a giveaway to customers. But what hasn’t been unlocked yet is real-time 24/7 trading.

And I think there’s a lot of things that we still have to figure out, not just with regulators, but also with these companies, because they rightly do have some concerns. It’s a new thing.

Not all of them like their stocks being traded in real-time 24/7. I think that we’re going to get to a point, I think, in the next probably five to 10 years where it is ubiquitous.

I mentioned in my talk that tokenization is a freight train. It can’t be stopped and I think eventually it’ll eat the whole global financial system but it’s going to take time for everyone to be comfortable with it.”

In July, Tenev said Robinhood was planning on launching its own blockchain for real world assets (RWAs), allowing for the tokenization of traditional assets.

At the time, Tenev said that Robinhood has already launched tokenized versions of US-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) over the layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum ( ARB ) for customers in Europe, giving European Union customers access to over 200 US assets.

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