Robinhood and Kraken Bet Big on Tokenized Stocks

The Breakdown

Blockworks

Investing, Business

4.8 • 786 Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Robinhood just unveiled major plans to offer tokenized stocks—including SpaceX and OpenAI—on their own Ethereum L2 blockchain, potentially reshaping private and public markets. NLW explores how Robinhood's move might democratize finance, threaten traditional venture models, and accelerate the convergence of crypto and traditional financial systems. Plus, Circle seeks a bank charter, highlighting crypto's rapid institutionalization. Brought to you by: Grayscale offers more than 20 different crypto investment products. Explore the full suite at grayscale.com. Invest in your share of the future. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal. To learn more, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Grayscale.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.grayscale.com//?utm_source=blockworks&utm_medium=paid-other&utm_campaign=brand&utm_id=&utm_term=&utm_content=audio-thebreakdown)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Enjoying this content? SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast: https://pod.link/1438693620 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBreakdownBW Subscribe to the newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thebreakdown⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join the discussion: https://discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8 Follow on Twitter: NLW: https://twitter.com/nlw Breakdown: https://twitter.com/BreakdownBW

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.
0:09.3	It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.
0:18.4	What's going on, guys? It is Tuesday, July 1st, and today we are talking about Robin Hood's big plans.
0:25.1	Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe to it,
0:28.8	give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation,
0:32.3	come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit.ly slash breakdown pod.
0:37.9	All right, friends. One of the things we've been talking about a lot recently is this idea of
0:42.7	tokenization being a third leg of this bull market stool, and our first story today has a lot to do
0:48.5	with that. Robin Hood has unveiled their big real-world assets play, including tokenized stock,
0:53.8	private equity, and even their own blockchain. The brokerage assets play, including tokenized stock, private equity,
0:54.4	and even their own blockchain. The brokerage will begin to offer tokenized stock to European
0:58.8	customers with over 200 stocks and ETFs on offer. The stock tokens will have zero commissions
1:03.5	and will be available for 24-hour trading five days a week. CEO Vlad Tennev also said that
1:08.6	tokenized stock in SpaceX and OpenAI would be available soon.
1:12.3	At the announcement of N. in Cannes, he did a live transaction of a million dollars worth of tokenized
1:16.2	open AI stock to Robin Hood Europe to be distributed at a later date.
1:19.9	Now, it was unclear if this was just a promotional giveaway or if private equity would be
1:24.0	available to purchase for all users. Some have already reported receiving fractional OpenAI and SpaceX stock amounting to about $10 in value. The company was clear that
1:32.4	startup stocks wouldn't be tradable initially, but they're working on regulatory and governance
1:36.2	blockers to make that happen. The point that they were trying to make is that the infrastructure
1:39.9	is in place and functional. These tokenized stock offerings will all run on Robin Hood's own Ethereum Layer L2, built
1:46.8	on the Arbitrum Stack, which is set to go live later this year or early next year.
	...

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