Vlad Tenev Wants to Tokenize SpaceX & OpenAI on Robinhood
Bankless
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4.8 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev returns to Bankless for a wide-ranging conversation on the future of tokenization, crypto regulation, and Robinhood’s evolving product suite.
Vlad lays out a bold vision for bringing tokenized assets like SpaceX and OpenAI equity to retail investors, discusses the role of prediction markets as "truth machines," and introduces Robinhood's latest products: Strategies, Cortex, and Banking.
This one’s a big glimpse into where TradFi and DeFi collide.
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✨ Mint the episode on Zora ✨
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
5:54 New Administration
12:19 Tokenization
16:18 Tokenized SpaceX
18:12 An IPO Alternative
23:39 Prediction Markets
25:40 Kalshi
29:58 Future of Prediction Markets
35:58 Robinhood Banking
38:27 Robinhood Cortex
44:08 Robinhood Strategies
49:04 Cash Delivery
52:10 Crypto Listings
54:37 Why Distinct Apps?
56:32 How Bankless is Robinhood?
1:00:42 Closing Thoughts
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RESOURCES
Vlad Tenev
https://x.com/vladtenev
Robinhood
https://robinhood.com/
Washington Post Op-ed
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/28/investing-crypto-tech-robinhood-stock-market/
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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | We wrote an op-ed actually in the Washington Post a couple months ago that I published |
| 0:05.3 | that makes the case for tokenizing private securities. So if you think about it, right now |
| 0:10.8 | it's hard to invest in OpenAI or SpaceX as a private company. And I think crypto can help solve |
| 0:17.0 | that. So if you tokenize private companies, it'll be good for the companies and also for investors. It's crazy to me that you can't invest in companies like that. So if you tokenize private companies, it'll be good for the companies and also for investors. |
| 0:22.6 | It's crazy to me that you can't invest in companies like SpaceX and Open AI, but you know, |
| 0:27.6 | we have clarity on meme coins and people can basically invest in those freely. |
| 0:36.6 | Welcome to Bankless where we explore the frontier of internet money and internet finance. |
| 0:43.1 | Today, on the show, I'm talking to Vlad Tennev, the CEO of Robin Hood. |
| 0:46.9 | Robin Hood is increasingly becoming a power player in the world of crypto, mainly just |
| 0:50.9 | due to their sheer size of their user base in AUM. |
| 0:59.0 | Robin Hood entered crypto markets long ago, both with making crypto accessible in the Robin Hood app, but also the Robin Hood wallet, a non-cissodial crypto wallet. |
| 1:02.0 | Robin Hood's furthering of their own frontier in the crypto space has really been put on pause |
| 1:06.0 | due to the regulation by enforcement stance of the previous SEC, but now that is behind us. |
| 1:12.1 | So I'm looking to learn a little bit more about what's next for Robin Hood when it comes |
| 1:15.6 | to integrating crypto into their product offerings now that they have gotten the green light |
| 1:18.7 | from the SEC. Then completely coincidentally, the week that I recorded with Vlad, |
| 1:23.4 | Robin Hood announced some pretty big new product lines. These are Robin Hood banking, strategies, |
| 1:28.3 | and Cortex. So I was also able to talk to Vlad about all of those things as well. And then also |
| 1:33.0 | maybe the most interesting part of the interview, definitely my favorite part, was the dual |
| 1:37.2 | discussion of the increasingly high hurdles it takes for companies to go public in today's |
| 1:43.4 | traditional stock market and how that fact is |
| 1:46.4 | interacting with the tokenization movement. Some of the biggest, most exciting companies of the |
... |
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