Robinhood’s Tenev Renews Push for Tokenized Stocks, Urges CLARITY Act on GameStop Anniversary

Overview

• Marking five years since buy restrictions on GameStop, Vlad Tenev argued that putting equities on-chain could enable real-time settlement and reduce clearinghouse deposit shocks.
• Tenev said the shift from T+2 to T+1 still leaves risky gaps, noting that trades around weekends can effectively take several days to settle.
• He called on Congress to pass the CLARITY Act to direct the SEC to craft specific rules for tokenized equities.
• SEC staff recently reiterated that tokenized securities remain subject to existing federal securities laws, including collateral and settlement controls.
• Robinhood has minted nearly 2,000 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs totaling just under $17 million and plans features like 24/7 trading, DeFi access, self-custody, lending, and staking, while critics say stronger broker capital and risk controls are still essential; market leaders xStocks and Ondo each exceed $500 million.