Robinhood chief executive Vlad Tenev said tokenised stocks are inevitable and could help prevent trading freezes like the 2021 GameStop halt by enabling real-time settlement.
Tenev said the GameStop episode exposed failures in outdated market infrastructure, arguing that even today’s one-day settlement cycle is “far too long” during periods of extreme volatility.
“What happens when you combine slow, outdated financial infrastructure with unprecedented trading volume and volatility in a small number of stocks?”
Tenev wrote, pointing to deposit requirements and trading restrictions that locked out retail investors.
He said tokenising equities on blockchain rails could remove settlement delays altogether, reducing systemic risk and pressure on clearinghouses and brokerages.
During the 2021 freeze, Robinhood was forced to raise $3 billion in two days to meet settlement obligations, leaving many retail traders unable to buy shares at critical moments.
Tenev noted that traditional exchanges still halt trading frequently to manage volatility, highlighting the limits of legacy systems even after settlement reforms.
He added that growing regulatory openness, including proposed US crypto legislation, creates a timely opportunity to adopt equity tokenisation so restrictions like those seen in 2021 “never have to happen again”.