Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) CEO Vlad Tenev recently noted during a professional gathering at Token2049 in Singapore that there should be a proper framework for asset tokenization in the world’s biggest markets, and it could be rolled out within the next 5 years.
Tenev said that prediction markets could be a combination of sports betting, ETPs, and typical news updates, with the potential to enhance these key industry segments significantly.
The vast majority of global markets may eventually form a framework for asset tokenization in the next few years, according to Tenev.
He predicted that tokenization could be compared to a freight train soon and that it could significantly transform the existing financial system.
Tenev acknowledged that it could take around 10 years or so for the entire world to participate in tokenization actively. He added that the United States may take longer than expected, especially when compared to smaller regions and less complicated jurisdictions.
Tenev also stated that the main obstacle for the US lies in its current financial infrastructure, which is actually functioning really well already, especially when compared to the rest of the world.
He compared America’s infrastructure to some of Japan’s most innovative bullet trains.
Tenev pointed out that the US does not currently have many reasons or incentives to build these types of high-speed rails, as its current infrastructure is sufficient.
The reasoning seems relatively straightforward, according to the Robinhood CEO.
Essentially, if you can easily travel from point A to point B in a few hours, then traveling there in only an hour may not be worth it, considering a cost-benefit analysis.As long as the US has a financial system that works reasonably, then the US won’t have any urgency to act so fast, which makes sense if you think about.
While you might not be able to trade tokenized stocks right away, there may not be such a pressing need to do so, However, Robinhood claims it has done a reasonably decent job of making stocks available to the relatively large group of traders and investors,
Tenev then went on to refer to stablecoins as the most rudimentary type of tokenized assets, adding that USD-pegged stablecoins are becoming more widely adopted in the United States, because of their potential to boost the overall dominance of the world’s reserve currency.
According to Tenev, this particular trend may soon be found with tokenized stocks, real estate as well as other asset classes.
He also thinks that tokenization might one day become the most common way to gain access to U.S. stocks for those who reside in other jurisdictions.
Interestingly, the Robinhood CEO thinks that crypto and TradFi have been living in different worlds or ecosystems. However, he believes they are going to begin to converge in the foreseeable future.
Tenev concluded that cryptocurrency technology offers several significant advantages compared to traditional methods. He believes that eventually, the end-user will no longer need to distinguish between DeFi, digital assets, and TradFi. They will be too busy engaging with actual products that enhance the user experience.
