On Monday, June 30, the American online brokerage platform Robinhood announced that it has officially launched stock tokenization products based on the Ethereum Layer-2 network Arbitrum in the EU market, allowing users to trade over 200 U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), covering popular assets such as Nvidia (NVDA.O), Apple (AAPL.O), and Microsoft (MSFT.O). These token products can be traded 24/5 without paying trading commissions.

It is worth mentioning that Robinhood also plans to expand tokenization to stocks of unlisted companies, with the first batch expected to cover OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, and SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk.

At the "Consensus 2025" event held in Toronto, Johann Kerbrat, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Robinhood Crypto, pointed out that tokenization can open new opportunities for retail investors to access traditionally restricted asset classes, calling it "very important for financial inclusivity."

"How many people can afford to buy a house or apartment in New York? But through fragmentation and tokenization, you can gain a portion of the returns, so we believe this will make trading easier and allow everyone to access it more easily."

As one of the world's most influential tech giants and a significant beneficiary of the AI wave, the U.S. stock market has always been the focus of international capital. Analysts believe that stock tokenization has the potential to reshape the landscape of securities investment, but the regulatory framework in the U.S. is not yet fully clear.

Stock tokenization refers to the process of converting traditional stocks into digital tokens through blockchain technology. These tokens represent a stock or a portion of a stock and are issued and circulated on the blockchain. The main features include:

• Linked to real stocks: The value of stock tokens is linked to the corresponding real stocks, usually pegged 1:1, and some products may allow for fractional ownership.

• 24/7 trading: Unlike traditional stock markets that only trade during business days and specific hours, stock tokens typically support 24/7 trading (depending on platform rules).

• Low threshold/fractured ownership: Traditional stocks often require a minimum purchase of one share, while tokenization allows for trading in smaller units (e.g., 0.01 shares), lowering the entry barrier.

• Blockchain settlement: Transaction records are public and transparent, with high settlement efficiency, eliminating the need to rely on traditional securities settlement systems.

From a technical perspective, Layer-2 aims to enhance transaction speed and reduce on-chain fees, which is particularly important for stock tokenization scenarios that require support for high-frequency, small, and fragmented transactions. In contrast, Layer-1 public chains, such as Ethereum, while secure and decentralized, have high transaction costs and insufficient scalability, making it difficult to support real-time matching of millions of fragmented equity shares. Relying entirely on traditional databases would also lose the programmability, traceability, and cross-border interoperability provided by blockchain, which contradicts Robinhood's strategic shift towards "on-chain assetization."

From a regulatory perspective, Robinhood's launch of Layer-2-based stock tokenization products in the EU, while aligning with the new trends of blockchain assetization and cross-border trading, also faces significant policy challenges.

First, stock tokenization is essentially a form of "securities on-chain," which directly touches upon the strict requirements of various countries' securities laws regarding the issuance, trading, and investor protection of financial products. Under the EU framework, regulations such as the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) and the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) have different licensing and compliance thresholds for virtual assets and traditional securities. How Robinhood proves that these tokens are both compliant and subject to existing stock trading regulations will be a key focus for regulators.

Additionally, the 24/7 uninterrupted trading and fragmented ownership characteristics of stock tokens create institutional friction with traditional securities trading systems, such as the need to redefine information disclosure, settlement cycles, and investor suitability. Especially since Robinhood also plans to expand tokenization to non-listed company equity, this may further raise regulatory concerns regarding valuation fairness and the legality of secondary circulation.

For the EU, finding a balance between encouraging financial innovation and maintaining market order may become a key factor in Robinhood's success.

Real World Assets (RWA), as one of the hottest narratives in blockchain, have long faced multiple challenges, including technological and regulatory hurdles, resulting in relatively few real-world cases. Among them, real estate, securities, bonds and loans, precious metals, and commodities are key areas for RWA tokenization due to their large asset scale and clear demand.

Robinhood is one of the few investment firms or brokerages exploring RWA tokenization in recent months, alongside others like BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Apollo, and VanEck.

However, unlike the RWA explorations driven by other asset management giants, Robinhood's approach is more aligned with ordinary investors, indicating that RWA tokenization will gradually shift from the institutional level to the retail level, expanding the user base and enhancing asset liquidity and market activity.

Moreover, choosing Arbitrum as the technical foundation demonstrates the industry's high recognition of Layer-2 solutions in reducing transaction costs and enhancing user experience. This technical route not only helps overcome the bottleneck of high Gas fees on the Ethereum mainnet but also enables faster and more convenient transaction processes, providing assurance for the popularization of tokenized assets.

Of course, the comprehensive promotion of RWA tokenization still faces multiple challenges, including regulatory compliance, asset custody, and legal protection. In the future, as more mainstream financial institutions get involved, coupled with continuous technological advancements and gradual improvements in regulatory policies, RWA tokenization is likely to become an important link between traditional finance and blockchain, further driving the entire financial system towards digitalization and decentralization.

Related: Robinhood plans to launch Layer 2 blockchain | Circle applies for U.S. banking license

Original article: “Layer-2-based stock tokenization lands, Robinhood drives the on-chain process of real assets”

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