Robinhood’s bold move offers OpenAI and SpaceX shares
Robinhood this week unveiled zero-commission, tokenized U.S. stocks and private-company tokens on Arbitrum — an Ethereum layer-two. In an interview with TheStreet Roundtable, Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan said the announcement shows “where the puck is going” and leaves him very bullish on the trading platform.
Hougan compared today’s market hours to an email system that shuts off every evening. “Why do we accept that in this modern day and age?” he asked.
By harnessing blockchain-based tools, Robinhood aims to enable trading 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with near-instant settlement.
“That’s a clear signal to the world about where we’re going,” Hougan said of Robinhood’s decision to build on Arbitrum, which ultimately settles transactions on the Ethereum network.
“I will say that it makes me very bullish on Robinhood. I think they see where the puck is going. They’re skating in that direction.”
Boost for Ethereum and Arbitrum
Because Robinhood chose a public blockchain, Hougan expects a surge in interest for both Ethereum and its layer-two scaling solution, Arbitrum. “I do think it’s extremely additive for Ethereum’s narrative. I think it’s additive for Arbitrum,” he said.
Tokenized stocks traded on Arbitrum will drive more users — retail and institutional — toward on-chain assets and decentralized applications.
In Hougan’s view, the industry will look back in a few years and be surprised by how fast the market shifted from the traditional settlement model to tokenized securities.
“If you think about two years ago, the idea of a major U.S. brokerage saying, ‘We’re going to tokenize public and private company stocks and trade them 24/7/365,’ they would have had a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission before they finished the sentence. But now we have the opportunity to do this in the open.”
Institutional adoption on the horizon
While Robinhood’s tokenized stocks aren’t yet open to U.S. investors, Hougan said they represent the direction of travel for the broader market. “It’s an extraordinary announcement,” he said. “I’m very excited for it.”
As tokenization takes hold, institutional players may embrace continuous, on-chain markets that unlock new liquidity pools. For long-term investors, the evolution promises faster execution, reduced counterparty exposure and a seamless bridge between traditional finance and digital-asset infrastructure.
With Robinhood leading the charge, Hougan argues, tokenized stocks could redefine market dynamics — putting blockchain at the heart of the next generation of trading.