Five years after the controversial GameStop trading halt, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has pointed out that implementing tokenized stocks on blockchain is the ultimate solution to financial infrastructure failures. During a public statement this January 28, 2026, Tenev argued that the current settlement system is too slow and costly in terms of collateral, which causes unnecessary restrictions that directly affect users.
According to the executive, the 2021 freeze was not a result of bad actors but of an obsolete architecture that takes days to process transactions. Although the U.S. market has shifted toward the T+1 cycle, Tenev maintains that this period is still insufficient in a 24-hour digital economy, especially during peaks of extreme volatility where clearinghouses demand massive capital deposits from brokers.
To mitigate these risks, the company has already begun issuing digital versions of assets under the tokenized stocks on blockchain standard, accumulating nearly 2,000 assets on the Arbitrum network. This technology allows trades to settle almost instantaneously, eliminating pressure on clearinghouses and allowing retail investors to trade without the geographic or temporal barriers of the traditional market.
Tokenization as a driver for real-time financial infrastructure
Robinhood’s proposal not only seeks to speed up trading but also to democratize access to tools that were once exclusive to large institutions. By moving stocks to a blockchain, operational friction is drastically reduced, which consequently favors the creation of an uninterrupted global market where asset ownership is transparent and easily verifiable at all times.
Furthermore, Tenev emphasized that the platform’s future includes full integration with decentralized finance protocols to offer lending and self-custody services. In this way, the adoption of these tokenized stocks on blockchain represents a paradigm shift toward efficiency, allowing financial assets to operate with the same fluidity as any other digital data on the network today.
What regulatory obstacles prevent Robinhood’s model from being massively implemented in the U.S.?
However, the success of this transformation crucially depends on legislative clarity from financial authorities. Tenev has urged Congress to pass the CLARITY Act, which would force the SEC to define clear rules for digital shares, as the lack of a national legal framework keeps the United States lagging behind regions like the European Union in terms of innovation.
Looking ahead, the migration of traditional assets toward decentralized ledgers seems an inevitable step for the modernization of Wall Street. It is expected that user pressure and evidence of greater operational security will push regulators to act, understanding that blockchain efficiency is the only guarantee to protect the right to free and fair trade in the modern era.
