Robinhood’s CEO Vlad Tenev just dropped one of the most future-forward visions we’ve heard on Bankless: a world where anyone can buy tokenized equity in SpaceX, OpenAI, and other private market giants — right inside Robinhood.
In his third appearance on the show, Vlad laid out the building blocks for a future where private companies are tokenized on public blockchains, giving global retail investors access to what has historically been gated to VCs and insiders.
“It’s crazy to me that you can’t invest in companies like SpaceX and OpenAI… but you can buy meme coins with no issue,” Vlad said.
This tokenized vision is closer than you might think. Regulatory momentum in Washington is finally shifting. With the SEC ceasing its hostile "regulation-by-enforcement" stance, and new bills on stablecoins and crypto market structure making headway, Robinhood is preparing to go deep on crypto-native financial products.
Here’s what else we covered:
- Tokenized Equities: Vlad explained how Robinhood could play a pivotal role in launching and distributing tokenized shares of private companies, turning illiquid private markets into permissionless, global, liquid markets.
- Prediction Markets: With their new prediction markets hub powered by Kalshi, Robinhood is betting big on the “truth machine” nature of markets — offering trades on everything from Fed decisions to March Madness to elections.
- Robinhood Strategies, Cortex & Banking: A new trio of products brings private-banker-level capabilities to the masses. Cortex, Robinhood’s financial LLM, helps decode stocks and construct multi-leg options trades based on user predictions. And yes — you can now get cash delivered to your house, Uber Eats-style.
- Crypto Listings & Wallets: More tokens are on the way. Robinhood’s DeFi wallet is slowly converging with its main app, blurring the lines between TradFi and DeFi. Expect more on-chain features and access to a wider array of assets soon.
We wrapped by asking Vlad the ultimate question: how bankless is Robinhood?
“Literally, we’re bankless — we don’t have a bank charter,” he said. “But we think the best of TradFi and crypto will converge. And if Robinhood can help drive that convergence, that’s a win for everyone.”
Big ideas, real products, and regulatory tailwinds — this episode is a sneak peek into the hybrid financial future we’ve been waiting for.