Vlad Tenev Wants to Tokenize SpaceX & OpenAI on Robinhood
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We wrote an op ed actually in the Washington Post a couple months ago that I published that makes the case for tokenizing private securities. So if you think about it, right now it's hard to invest in OpenAI or SpaceX as a private company, and I think crypto can help solve that. So if you tokenize private companies, it'll be good for the companies and also for investors. It's crazy to me that you can invest in companies like SpaceX and OpenAI, but, you know, we have clarity on meme coins, and people can basically invest in those freely.
Welcome to Bankless, where we explore the frontier of Internet money and Internet finance. Today, on the show, I'm talking to Vlad Tenev, the CEO of Robinhood. Robinhood is increasingly becoming a power player in the world of crypto mainly just due to their sheer size of their user base in AUM. Robinhood entered crypto markets long ago both with making crypto accessible in the Robinhood app but also the Robinhood wallet, a non custodial crypto wallet. Robinhood's furthering of their own frontier in the crypto space has really been put on pause due to the regulation by enforcement stance of the
Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure.
So you guys just came out of some pretty big product announcements. Robinhood Strategies, Robinhood Banking, Robinhood Cortex, pretty good timing for this podcast episode, but that was actually a coincidence. We're gonna get there. I first wanna talk about some more crypto native subjects, mainly this new era of regulation in crypto, crypto inside of The United States. So this new administration has unlocked many doors for the crypto industry inside The United States, especially for institutions who have always wanted to enter the crypto industry but have really been too uncertain or risk aver
Yeah. I think the the immediate thing was the cessation of regulation by enforcement. So, like, just a big improvement is to not be under all out assault over all aspects of the crypto business. So, you know, there was the announcement that the SEC closed its investigation into crypto along with the crypto businesses of some other companies in the industry. And I think what you felt was immediate relief, the feeling that we can just move forward as a company and as an industry without having to deal with this relentless onslaught, where it was very, very clear that the previous administration
Mhmm. I think maybe if I'm hearing your answer, there are a bunch of product lines that theoretically exist that are out there that we really need that market structure bill to get through congress so that we can stop being in this exploratory phase, this ideation phase, and actually stopping in this building phase. Is that correct?
Yeah. A %. Yeah. So effectively, you know, a stablecoin, for example, that bears yield, that pays interest directly to holders resembles a money market fund. Right.
Right. Which is a security.
Stablecoins themselves resemble money market funds because there literally are money market funds that hold treasuries. And so, you know, that's where Stablecoin's being treated a little bit differently and has been for a while, but I think that's where the regulatory clarity can come in. Mhmm.
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