Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev discusses the next five years of development and stock tokenization.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev recently appeared on the well-known All-In Podcast, discussing how he broke through challenges from the early days of the startup to today, while also sharing the vision for the company's future development. Tenev revealed in the interview that Robinhood will focus on promoting the tokenization of stocks and securities, aiming to make Robinhood a brand recognized by every household. The conversation began with how Robinhood found its angel investor Jason Calacanis and his initial funding, extending to discussions about the United States' cryptocurrency policy and how Robinhood plans to redefine the investment market over the next five years. Below are the key points from the video translated and organized.

Striving to disrupt the traditional financial system, stock prices soared over 206% in 2024.

Tenev stated that Robinhood aims to create a fairer, more open, and technology-driven blockchain financial platform, striving to disrupt the expensive and opaque services of traditional financial systems. As of the deadline, Robinhood's recent stock price YTD ( Year to date) has surged over 206%. CEO Tenev pointed out that the impressive data is driven by the growth in platform users and continuous product innovation, with the number of Robinhood Gold subscribers surpassing 3.5 million, becoming a significant growth momentum for the company.

The founder of Robinhood was just a young man talking about dreams in a bar back then.

During the conversation, well-known angel investor Jason Calacanis recalled his experience investing in Robinhood. He mentioned that he first met Tenev in a bar in Palo Alto, where Tenev pitched his startup idea to him as a “quantitative analyst.” He remembered Tenev saying that he wanted to allow young people who don’t care about the future to trade stocks for free. At that time, Jason thought it was too crazy, but what if it succeeded? Jason Calacanis laughed and said that this dream has now come true, and Robinhood has successfully joined the S&P 500 index, becoming an important player in the U.S. stock market.

Launch of tokenized stocks of OpenAI and SpaceX

In the summer of 2024, Robinhood will hold an event in France to showcase the concept of Tokenizing Stocks ( for the first time to European users. Tenev mentioned that Robinhood has tokenized shares of OpenAI and SpaceX, providing them to European retail investors through blockchain. Tenev stated that Robinhood wants to explore what it would look like if the company continues to develop blockchain finance. He pointed out that the logic of tokenizing stocks is similar to the stablecoin model: issuing corresponding crypto tokens through reserve assets for immediate trading in the global market. He believes this will address core issues in the traditional financial system such as “opacity,” “slow settlement,” and “inaccessible assets.”

The Trump administration has a positive attitude and a promising outlook.

When discussing the U.S. government's attitude towards innovation and crypto assets, Tenev stated that the new Trump administration is more open and proactive compared to previous administrations. During the previous administration, Robinhood often found itself in a defensive position, having received enforcement notices from nearly every department. The atmosphere today is different; the government has shifted from being an attacker to a potential partner, which is a significant change.

Robinhood's Development in the Next Five Years: A Platform Where the Whole Family Can Invest

In the next four to five years, Robinhood plans to evolve from a stock trading-focused tech startup into a comprehensive financial platform that encompasses consumption, savings, investments, and household finance. Robinhood CEO Tenev stated that after launching new products such as retirement accounts and credit cards, the company observed that users not only did not diversify their funds but instead became more proactive in consolidating their assets on the platform, showing a positive interaction effect between the products. This strategy aims to make Robinhood the “primary financial partner” for users, and even the financial hub for entire families. With over $130 trillion in funds set to transfer from the Silent Generation and Baby Boomers to the younger generation globally, Robinhood believes it possesses advantages in technology, products, and user structure, positioning itself as a potential major beneficiary of this historic wealth transfer.

Robinhood has established a modern and appealing financial infrastructure through an agile development pace and a strong engineering team, attracting the younger generation, who were previously uninterested in stocks as a traditional financial investment tool, to join the market, thereby changing the game rules of the stock market that were once only participated in by the elderly.

Extended reading: Robinhood will replace casino operator Caesars Entertainment in the S&P 500 index.

In this article, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev discusses the next five years of development and stock tokenization, originally appearing in Chain News ABMedia.