Robinhood has submitted a 42-page proposal to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), advocating for a national regulatory framework to govern the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs). The initiative aims to modernize financial infrastructure by equating tokenized assets with their traditional counterparts, facilitating compliant on-chain settlement.
Central to the proposal is the concept of “token-asset equivalence,” wherein a token representing an asset like a U.S. Treasury bond would be legally treated as the bond itself, rather than a derivative. This approach is intended to streamline custody, trading, and settlement processes within the existing regulatory system.
Robinhood also unveiled plans for the Real World Asset Exchange (RRE), a trading platform designed to offer off-chain trade matching coupled with on-chain settlement. The platform would operate on a dual-chain architecture utilizing Solana and Base, aiming for sub-10 microsecond matching latency and throughput of up to 30,000 transactions per second. This could potentially reduce the U.S. capital markets’ standard settlement time from T+2 to T+0, cutting trading costs by an estimated 30% annually.
To ensure compliance with global standards, the RRE would integrate Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) tools through partnerships with firms like Jumio and Chainalysis.
Robinhood’s proposal comes amid a growing interest in RWA tokenization. For instance, BlackRock recently filed to create a blockchain-based share class for its $150 billion Treasury Trust Fund, and Libre announced plans to tokenize $500 million in Telegram debt via its new Telegram Bond Fund.
“RWA tokenization represents a new paradigm for institutional asset allocation. Robinhood is committed to leading this trend under a compliant framework,” said Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev.
