Robinhood 42-page RWA tokens proposal to the SEC set to bring Wall Street On-chain

Robinhood Markets Inc. has submitted a 42-page proposal to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), laying the groundwork for what could become the first federally sanctioned regulatory framework for tokenizing real-world assets (RWA). 

The Nasdaq-listed financial services firm is seeking the financial watchdog’s greenlight to infuse RWA into capital markets through its initiative, dubbed the RWA Regulatory Exchange (RRE).

Filed in late April with the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, Robinhood’s policy proposal advocates for a system to enable compliant issuance, custody, and trading of tokenized assets. The document details a legal capacity for financial institutions to tokenize markets, lowering entry barriers for issuers and improving transparency and compliance of decentralized technologies.

Robinhood submits framework for on-chain Wall Street

According to Robinhood’s proposal, the SEC should issue federally licensed tokenized asset standards and integrated KYC/AML protocols compliant with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Travel Rule. The proposed system would incorporate Jumio and Chainalysis-based identity modules to verify users in several jurisdictions.

1/ Robinhood’s RWA submission to the SEC’s Crypto Task Force lays out a comprehensive vision to tokenize real-world assets (RWAs) to modernize markets and manage risk, see summary🧵👇

— Juan Leon (@singularity7x) May 19, 2025

At the technical level, the RRE would operate on the Solana and Base blockchains under a proposed performance metric of sub-10 microseconds, matching latency and throughput of up to 30,000 transactions per second. 

The architecture could shorten the traditional two-day (T+2) settlement cycle of US securities in favor of instantaneous (T+0) settlement. Robinhood’s team believes the infrastructure could reduce annual trading costs by as much as 30%.

Retail access and market inclusion

In the proposal, Robinhood is asking the SEC to authorize a modified Form S-1 for tokenized securities to accommodate unique disclosure and investor protection requirements applicable to digital assets. 

The firm requested regulators to allow broker-dealers to hold and trade both tokenized securities and non-securities within a single regulated entity under clear capital and custody guidelines.

Speaking at the Consensus 2025 in Canada last Friday,  Johann Kerbrat, general manager of Robinhood Crypto, reiterated that fractional ownership enabled by tokenization could help investors access assets that were previously limited to accredited investors, like real estate and private equity.

“How many people can afford a house or an apartment in New York?” Kerbrat asked. “But you can get a piece of it with fractionalization through tokenization.”

He mentioned that only about 10% of the US population currently qualifies to invest in private equity. According to Kerbrat, RWA tokenization makes asset classes more accessible to everyday investors and promotes financial inclusion.

The firm’s CEO, Vlad Tenev, coined the push for a RWA framework as “a generational change in financial infrastructure.” 

“RWA tokenization represents a new paradigm for institutional asset allocation,” Tenev said in the company’s recent SEC filing. “Robinhood is committed to leading this trend under a compliant framework.”

VanEck, BlackRock interested in RWA

Investment heavyweights, including VanEck, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Apollo, would likely support Robinhood’s plea to the SEC, having entered the market with their own blockchain-based offerings.

Most recently, VanEck announced the launch of VBILL, a tokenized fund providing exposure to US Treasury bills. Developed in partnership with Securitize, the fund will be available across Avalanche, BNB Chain, Ethereum, and Solana. Minimum investments range from $100,000 on most chains to $1 million on Ethereum, according to a May 13 announcement from VanEck.

BREAKING: VANECK LAUNCHES TOKENIZED TREASURY FUND

The $120,000,000,000 asset manager just launched the VanEck Treasury Fund (VBILL) alongside their existing crypto ETFs and VC fund.

It's now live on Ethereum, Avalanche, Solana, and BNB Chain, powered by Securitize and Wormhole. pic.twitter.com/p7vZqVQn0t

— RWA.xyz (@RWA_xyz) May 13, 2025

Franklin Templeton and BlackRock have also developed tokenized US Treasury offerings to tap into the ballooning investor demand for blockchain-native fixed-income products.

BlackRock led a $47 million funding round for Securitize in May 2024, which has so far tokenized over $3.9 billion in assets. Meanwhile, Apollo, which manages $751 billion in assets, entered the RWA market earlier this year with a private credit tokenized fund. 

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