Vladimir Tenev, the CEO and co-founder of Robinhood, advocates for the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) to revolutionize U.S. capital markets and provide retail investors with better access to lucrative opportunities in private companies.
In a recent piece, Tenev suggested that tokenizing private stocks could help close the investment gap between ultra-wealthy accredited investors and everyday retail investors, who often miss out on high-growth, early-stage investment opportunities.
In an interview with Fox Business, Tenev highlighted that the initial public offering (IPO) process has become complex and restrictive. Unlike in the past, when companies could go public at lower valuations, today, only the most prominent companies can successfully navigate this process. As a result, small investors have limited access to the substantial returns that insiders in companies like OpenAI and SpaceX have experienced. Tenev pointed out that these insiders have seen their profits multiply by as much as 1,000 times their initial investments, contributing to a growing sense of inequality in the investment landscape.
To level the playing field, Tenev proposed that tokenizing the stock of private companies would allow retail investors to get in early before a company reaches a valuation of $100 billion or more. This could benefit both investors and the companies themselves, as firms would gain access to a broader pool of capital.
While Tenev acknowledged that the U.S. SEC currently regulates the market, he expressed optimism that under the leadership of President Donald Trump, the regulatory body would modernize securities laws to allow for the tokenization of private company stocks.
In a related development, the RWAfi platform Plume recently partnered with PinLink, the DePIN platform, to transform how RWAs are tokenized and managed. Announced on January 3, 2025, the collaboration aims to tap into the projected $30 trillion RWA market by 2030, addressing key needs for liquidity and scalability in the tokenization space.
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