A day after Robinhood unveiled an expansion of its tokenized equities offering, CEO Vlad Tenev said the growth of the digital assets industry hinges on bringing real-world assets (RWAs) onchain rather than creating tokens without underlying utility.
"The future of crypto is in real-world assets," Tenev told CNBC on Thursday morning. "If an asset is not tied to an underlying utility, it's not a productive asset. What's the benefit of making a million different memecoins?"
On Wednesday, Robinhood launched Stock Tokens, a service that allows eligible users to trade tokenized equities 24/7, and eventually deploy those assets into lending pools where they can be used as trading collateral across the broader DeFi ecosystem. Robinhood is also working on ways to offer users exposure to privately held companies like OpenAI.
Asked whether the crypto market has entered into an "enduring crypto winter," Tenev spoke to his belief in the merging of traditional finance and crypto. Robinhood, which started as a popular app for retail traders to buy and sell stocks, has been expanding its offerings of tokenized RWAs to include U.S. equities and derivatives of private companies.
Expand Chart
Broadly speaking, digital assets, particularly major tokens like bitcoin and Ethereum, have declined so far this year, with the overall crypto market losing roughly $1 trillion in market capitalization. Bitcoin was changing hands at $61,601.41 as of 11:43 a.m. ET on Thursday, down 30% year to date.
One bright spot for the industry has been growing institutional adoption, with Wall Street firms and major payments companies increasingly embracing blockchain technology and tokenized assets.
"Crypto is becoming infrastructure that powers financial markets," Tenev said. "Everything that is running on traditional rails will eventually become onchain, tokenized. It's like a freight train that can't be stopped."
Tenev also said he didn't think bitcoin would become less important, but said the industry's next phase of growth would come from tokenizing real-world assets.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2026 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
