Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev: EU will probably get 24/7 trading before US, and it would be a 'shame'

Robinhood (HOOD) has set the stage for 24/7 stock trading, at least in the European Union.

The trading platform said Monday it has launched US stock and ETF tokens in the European Union at an event in Cannes, France. European Robinhood customers will have access to more than 200 US stock and ETF tokens. Stock token holders will also receive dividend payments directly in their Robinhood app.

With tokenized stocks, the company's European app transitions from a crypto-only app to a broader offering where customers can invest in stocks and ETFs.

Stock tokens will initially be issued on the blockchain player Arbitrum. Robinhood said tokenized stocks will soon be facilitated by its layer two blockchain. It said the technology, currently in development, will support 24/7 trading.

"We believe we can get that done [24/7 trading in the EU] within the next few months," Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev told me on Yahoo Finance's Market Domination. "For our EU customers, at least that's the goal. And you already have it with crypto assets. So these stock tokens powered by crypto technology will use the same underlying infrastructure. So once they're available on Bitstamp, we believe will unlock 24/7 trading. So you'll get the Saturdays and the holidays. And I think that would be very compelling"

Using blockchain technology, tokenization is the process of creating a digital representation of a real asset. It essentially allows investors the ability to diversify their holdings by, for example, fractional ownership of an asset like a stock, art, or real estate.

Financial services giants such as BlackRock (BLK) and Franklin Templeton have adopted tokenization for money market funds. BlackRock co-founder and CEO Larry Fink has been a vocal supporter of tokenization, as it democratizes investing access, shareholder voting, and yield.

"The world's money moves through plumbing built when trading floors still shouted orders and fax machines felt revolutionary," Fink said in his annual shareholder letter earlier this year.

Consultancy McKinsey estimates that tokenized market capitalization could reach about $2 trillion by 2030, excluding cryptocurrencies in bitcoin and stablecoins.

Tenev says it will likely take longer to get 24/7 stock trading approved by US regulators.

"I've talked about the need for 24/7 markets in the U.S for quite some time. It would be a shame for the EU to get there first. But I think the U.S. wants to catch up. We've been having a lot of conversations with the regulators," Tenev explained. "We think actually the SEC has the ability to make this happen. So we're going to continue to collaborate with them to bring it to the U.S."

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Other key product reveals at the Monday event for Robinhood include crypto perpetual futures in the EU.

Shares rose more than 12% in today's session.

The company has been aggressive in reinventing itself from a pure-play stock trading platform founded by Tenev and Baiju Bhatt in 2013.

Watch: Why Robinhood's co-founder is all in on space

In March, the company released Robinhood Banking to provide access to traditional checking and savings accounts.

Robinhood Strategies now serves as a wealth management service. Its premium Gold subscribers pay a 0.25% annual fee, capped at $250.

It also debuted a prediction markets hub in its app this year. The contracts allow users to wager on everything from what the fed funds rate could be to NCAA tournament games.

The platform provider also debuted futures and index options trading last year.

Robinhood shares are up 151% this year compared to a 5% advance for the S&P 500 and a 41% gain for rival Coinbase (COIN).

"In our view, Robinhood has successfully migrated from a fast growing, periodically profitable online broker servicing mostly younger investors, to a best-in-class top and bottom-line asset under custody compounder with a growing total addressable market (TAM)," Goldman Sachs analyst James Yaro said. "In the near-to-medium-term, we see growth driven by continued wallet share gains among highly-profitable active traders, and a long-term opportunity to expand Robinhood's TAM into areas, such as wealth and internationally."

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Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email [email protected].

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