Chamath backs equity tokenization while questioning Bitcoin’s reserve role

Chamath Palihapitiya, the billionaire host of the All In Podcast, has committed to giving a critic’s daughters free rides through college, and his recent rhetoric about equities tokenization and Bitcoin may give some insight into how he plans to approach future investments.

Chamath made the philanthropic commitment after what appears to be a private and respectful resolution to a public disagreement with an anonymous X account that blamed Chamath for the losses they incurred investing on Clover Health, a company that went public in January 2021 on the business model of using AI tech to optimize Medicare Advantage plans. 

The founder of Social Capital and former senior executive at Facebook has been known to give “game” on how he perceives investment opportunities and public markets. 

And now, he appears to have jumped on the tokenized equities bandwagon, sounding bullish on the rapidly growing market, which contrasts heavily with recent comments where he questioned the logic behind Bitcoin as a reserve asset for governments and central banks. 

Chamath goes bullish on equity tokenization

In a long X article titled “Deep Dive: How Equity Tokenization Is Breaking  TradfFi Barriers,” Chamath named trading hour limitations, intermediary-dependent settlement, and difficulties in accessing the highest-growth companies as major bottlenecks affecting the global equity markets, which he estimated at $150 trillion. 

The All In Podcast host cited tokenization efforts by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq and Depository Trust and Clearing Company (DTCC) as early signals that market infrastructure providers are latching on to the next step in market evolution. 

Citing Defillama data, Chamath contrasted the 10X growth of stablecoins over the last five years to the 3.5X of equity tokens since the start of 2025 as signs of the growing popularity of equity tokenization, with further runway for future expansion. 

Generally, the tokenization trend has taken off, with fiat-pegged stablecoins being its most popular application. Tokenized public and private equity are also up and to the right, even though they are only a small fraction of the billions of dollars parked in tokenized US Treasury debt, while tokenized gold and silver account for most of the $7.7 billion in tokenized commodities, according to RWA.xyz. 

CryptoQuant analysts also spotted the trend of traditional market investors migrating to crypto exchanges as 24/7 platforms to trade commodities and equities. As of February 24, two months after it launched its TradFi perpetual futures markets, Binance had processed over $100 billion in trading volume, mainly on metals and equities such as AMZN, COIN, CIRCL, HOOD, INTC, MSTR, PLTR and TSLA. 

Per cryptoQuant, cumulative trading volume has surpassed $130 billion across 90 million trades. 

Chamath throttles Bitcoin momentum

One of Bitcoin’s earliest proponents, going as far back as May 2013 when Chamath was credited for a Bloomberg op-ed, where he linked Bitcoin to the “red pill.” However, according to recent reports, Chamath is not so hot on Bitcoin right now. 

According to Chamath, Bitcoin does not make sense to be held by governments and central banks  because of its privacy and fungibility limitations. He made those comments on the “Pain, Power and the Game Nobody Wins” episode of the People by WTF show during the World Government Summit. 

During the same conversation, Chamath presented the case for gold, stablecoins, and alternative cryptos, which has raised eyebrows among those who have followed the Bitcoin OG through the years. 

Chamath’s comments come as analysts have tempered the enthusiasm of those eager to declare the end of the Bitcoin bear market, as the OG crypto has managed to sustain near the $70,000 level. 

The 10/100 reading on CryptoQuant’s Bull Score Index as of March 5, indicates that “the current moe is likely just a relief rally, not the start of a new bull phase.”

Offer to cover college tuition

Even though he’s currently a billionaire, Chamath’s wealth took big hits during the SPAC crash of 2022 when many of his public listings hemorrhaged value. Recent comments from the former Facebook senior executive could definitely influence his fortunes in the future, especially if he backs the wrong horse as traditional markets move to novel rails. 

Anyhow it goes, it could definitely affect Chamath’s ability to deliver on future promises if he makes a habit of committing to cover the college tuition of the children of people who incur losses on his positions, similar to the one he made to the person behind the anonymous @0xParabolic_ X account on March 5, where he claimed to have funded the college accounts of his two daughters. 

Chamath made the donation after a now-deleted public spat with the account after they joined a long line of critics of Chamath’s reflection on his role in the SPAC crash of 2022. 

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