The Chopping Block: Robinhood’s Vlad Tenev on Tokenized Privates, 24/7 Stocks & AI-Verified Code - Ep. 891

Unchained

Laura Shin

News, Tech News, Business News

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Altcoin froth meets real-asset rails. Vlad explains why Robinhood built an L2, how tokenized stocks—and even private shares like OpenAI/SpaceX—could trade on-chain, and what that means for accreditation, access, and the public/private wall. Plus: DATs, DTCC in a tokenized world, and AI that formally proves smart contracts. Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, Robinhood co‑founder/CEO Vlad Tenev joins to explain Robinhood Chain, why they chose a Layer 2 over a Layer 1, and the plan to bring tokenized stocks — including private shares — on‑chain. We get into the OpenAI/SpaceX kerfuffle, accreditation rules, and whether permissionless tokenization erodes the public/private boundary. Then we zoom out to 24/7 trading, Digital Asset Treasuries, and how formal verification (Lean proofs) could make smart contracts safer. Show highlights 🔹 Robinhood Chain L2 vs. L1 – Why Vlad Tenev chose a Layer 2 over a Layer 1 for tokenized stocks and real-world assets. 🔹 Tokenized Stocks & Private Shares – How Robinhood could put U.S. equities and private company equity (OpenAI, SpaceX) on-chain via SPVs and secondaries. 🔹 OpenAI/SpaceX Tokenization Debate – Issuer consent vs. permissionless exposure: what the kerfuffle reveals about private markets on-chain. 🔹 Retail Access & Accreditation Reform – Moving from wealth-gated accreditation to disclosure + self-certification so more investors can participate. 🔹 Ex-US Rollout for Tokenized Equities – Stablecoin-style playbook with KYC/geofencing and permissionless assets where allowed. 🔹 24/7 Trading for Stocks – From 24/5 to 24/7 markets; what this means for DTCC, transfer agents, and market plumbing. 🔹 Wallet + Chain + Custody Stack – Vertical integration advantages: pricing, UX, and liquidity when Robinhood owns more of the rails. 🔹 Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs) – Yield dynamics, mNAV compression, and how DATs stack up against staking ETFs. 🔹 Memecoins vs. Real Assets – “You can buy memes but not OpenAI” paradox and why investor-protection rules feel backward. 🔹 AI-Verified Smart Contracts – Lean proofs, formal verification, and reducing smart-contract risk beyond manual audits. 🔹 Harmonic’s “Aristotle” – Vlad’s AI hitting IMO gold-medal-level math performance and what that means for code safety. 🔹 Robinhood’s Next Decade – Retail super app → B2B/institutional rails and ex-US expansion for tokenized finance. Hosts: ⭐️ Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️ Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate⭐️ Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures⭐️ Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly Guest: ⭐️ Vlad Tenev, CEO & Co-founder of Robinhood Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:52 L2 vs. L1 Trade-Offs 04:19 Tokenized Stocks on Robinhood Chain 07:56 Private Markets Onchain 16:10 Accreditation Reform & Compliance 21:47 24/7 Trading for Equities 31:05 Public vs. Private Boundary 32:59 Memecoin Paradox vs. Real-Asset Tokenization 35:27 Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs) 37:50 Robinhood’s Business Mix 41:38 Retail to Institutions: Global Expansion 46:44 Harmonic AI & Lean Proofs 54:48 Safer Smart Contracts Beyond Manual Audits Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	There's a lot of talk about investor protection and protecting these folks from making poor investments, losing money.
0:07.9	But we are now in a world where you can invest in a meme coin to your heart's content, but OpenAI and SpaceX are deemed too risky, which I think is just a bizarre, perhaps unintended outcome.
0:23.0	Not a dividend.
0:24.1	It's a tale of two pawn.
0:25.1	Now, your losses are on someone else's balance.
0:27.9	Generally speaking, air drops are kind of pointless anyways.
0:30.8	Unnamed to trading firms who are very involved.
0:33.5	D5 protocols are the antidote to this problem. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the chopping block. Every couple weeks, the four of us get together and give the industry insider perspective on the crypto topics of the day. So quick intro, this first you got Tom, the Defy Maven and Master of Memes. Hello, everyone. Next we got Robert, the Cryptoconisurer and Tsar of Super State. Good morning, everybody. Next we've got Tarun, the Gigabrain, and Grand Puba at Gauntlet. You. Joining us today, we have special guest, Vlad, FinTech futurist, and founder of Robin Hood. Greetings and salutations. And I am the Steve of the headhiped man at Dragonfly. We're early stage investors in crypto, but I want to copy out that nothing we say here
1:13.0	is investment advice, legal advice, or even life advice. Please see chopping block that X, Y, Z for more disclosures. So, Vlad, you've got a lot. We've been talking about the assent of Robin Hood over the last year and a half, quite a bit on the show, but we're very excited to have you here to answer to
1:28.5	the community what the hell is going on with Robin Hood chain. So we've had a lot of discussions
1:33.5	about, I don't know if you're aware of how much the crypto world loves to argue about the
1:39.5	minutia of little tiny decisions that were made by some of these individual companies that end up
1:45.4	becoming these larger sort of melodramas within the cryptos team.
1:49.3	I'm familiar, yes.
1:50.5	You're familiar.
1:51.1	Okay, good.
1:51.5	Good to hear.
1:52.1	So first question off the bat, why did you build Robin Hood or decide to build Robin Hood chain
1:57.3	as a layer two instead of as a layer one?
2:00.3	I think this has been discussed on Twitter, as you mentioned, and someone put it well
2:06.4	when they said the decision is really about being an owner versus a tenant.
2:11.7	And we thought that having our own chain ultimately gave us control over all the details end to end of operating
	...

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