TheBlock
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev told CNBC that the future of crypto lies in bringing real-world assets online, not in the memecoin trade that's dominated recent retail flows.
Speaking to the network, Tenev said TradFi and crypto are merging. The layer he sees doing the heavy lifting is tokenized funds and onchain versions of traditional instruments, not speculative tokens. Memecoins and "memecoin-like things," he argued, don't warrant much attention.
Why it matters
A bullish take on RWA from a US retail-broker CEO with the user base to act on it lands at a moment when tokenized treasuries and money-market funds have already crossed billions in onchain assets. Tenev's framing aligns Robinhood's narrative with the institutional buildout underway at BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Ondo.
Market impact
The signal cuts both ways: it legitimizes the RWA thesis as a multi-year track, while writing the memecoin cycle off as transitory noise. Watch for any follow-up from Robinhood on tokenized product rollout in the EU and US in the months ahead.
Frequently asked questions
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What did Robinhood's CEO actually say about crypto?
Vlad Tenev told CNBC that the future of digital assets is in bringing real-world assets online, not memecoins. He framed TradFi and crypto as merging, with tokenized funds and onchain traditional instruments as the main wedge.
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Why is an RWA-focused take from Robinhood significant?
It aligns Robinhood's narrative with the institutional buildout underway at BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Ondo, giving the RWA thesis explicit retail-brokerage cover at a moment tokenized treasuries have already crossed billions in onchain assets.
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What did Tenev say about memecoins?
He argued memecoins and 'memecoin-like things' don't warrant much attention, framing them as speculative noise rather than the structural direction of the crypto market.
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Which firms are already building in the RWA space?
BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Ondo are cited as the main institutional names pushing tokenized treasuries and onchain money-market funds, with onchain assets under management already in the billions.
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What should traders watch next after this comment?
Watch for any Robinhood tokenized-product rollout in the EU and US in the months ahead, and whether peers like Schwab and Fidelity start framing their own RWA bets the same way.
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