In the bustling financial district of Singapore, the Token2049 conference drew a crowd eager to hear from some of the leading voices in the crypto world. Among them, Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood, made waves with his bold predictions about the future of finance and the role of tokenization in reshaping it.
A Freight Train Called Tokenization
“The most important story in crypto right now is tokenization,” Tenev declared, likening it to a “freight train” on a collision course with traditional finance. His words reverberated through the conference hall as he painted a picture of a future where the lines between crypto and traditional financial systems blur and eventually disappear entirely. “Crypto and traditional finance have been living in separate worlds, but they’ll fully merge,” he asserted. “In the future, everything will be on-chain in some form, and the distinction will disappear.”
Robinhood is already making strides in this direction, offering tokenized stocks in Europe and private shares in sought-after startups like OpenAI. The firm is betting big on a future where assets trade 24/7, on-chain, and globally. Tenev explained, “In the same way that stablecoins have become the default way to get digital access to dollars, tokenized stocks will become the default way for people outside the U.S. to get exposure to American equities.”
Regulatory Hurdles and Global Disparities
While Tenev’s vision is grand, he acknowledges that the path forward isn’t without obstacles. Despite praise from many in the crypto industry for the U.S.’s digital asset policy direction, he pointed out that the country needs to play regulatory catch-up to Europe. “There’s no urgency to change things – such as creating regulations to facilitate 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks – because the current system works well enough already,” he noted. He drew a parallel to the lack of high-speed trains in the U.S., suggesting that the existing financial infrastructure suffices for now, just as medium-speed trains do.
“The biggest challenge in the U.S. is that the financial system basically works. It’s why we don’t have bullet trains — medium-speed trains get you there well enough,” Tenev said. “So the incremental effort to move to fully tokenized will just take longer.”
Real Estate: The Next Frontier
Looking to the future, Tenev revealed Robinhood’s ambition to tokenize real estate, framing it as the next logical step in their tokenization strategy. He described the process as “mechanically” similar to tokenizing private companies like SpaceX or OpenAI—placing the assets into a company structure and issuing tokens against it.
This move, however, hasn’t been without its controversies. OpenAI labeled the tokenization of its private shares as “unauthorized,” and some crypto lawyers have criticized the approach as legally precarious. Yet, Tenev dismissed these concerns as symptoms of a broader regulatory lag, arguing that the main challenges are legal, not technical. “Europe is already moving ahead,” he said, suggesting that while the U.S. may trail, real estate tokenization remains an inevitable evolution in Robinhood’s mission.
A Future Consumed by Tokenization?
As Tenev concluded his presentation, the message was clear: tokenization is poised to reshape the financial landscape, potentially consuming it entirely. “Eventually, it’s going to eat the entire financial system,” he stated, emphasizing the transformative potential of this technology.
While skeptics may point to the regulatory and technical challenges that lie ahead, Tenev’s vision offers a glimpse into a world where financial assets are more accessible, tradeable, and transparent than ever before. Whether this vision becomes reality will depend on how quickly the regulatory landscape can adapt and how readily traditional finance can embrace this digital revolution.
As the conference attendees dispersed, the conversation around tokenization and its implications for the financial system continued to buzz, underscoring the profound impact this technology might have in the years to come.
Steve Gregory is a lawyer in the United States who specializes in licensing for cryptocurrency companies and products. Steve began his career as an attorney in 2015 but made the switch to working in cryptocurrency full time shortly after joining the original team at Gemini Trust Company, an early cryptocurrency exchange based in New York City. Steve then joined CEX.io and was able to launch their regulated US-based cryptocurrency. Steve then went on to become the CEO at currency.com when he ran for four years and was able to lead currency.com to being fully acquired in 2025.
