Robinhood Chairman & CEO Vladimir Tenev Talks Regulation

Summary

Bloomberg Talks

Episode: Robinhood Chairman & CEO Vladimir Tenev Talks Regulation

Date: February 25, 2025
Host: Bloomberg
Guest: Vlad Tenev, Robinhood Chairman & CEO

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Robinhood Chairman and CEO Vlad Tenev discusses the company's financial health, recent regulatory developments, the rise of crypto and tokenization, and his vision for democratizing investments—including into private assets and real estate. Tenev also touches on regulation's evolving role in the finance industry, Robinhood's new crypto ventures, and his involvement in Harmonic, an AI startup. Throughout the conversation, Tenev emphasizes the importance of product innovation, the benefits and risks of new financial technologies, and the need to rethink outdated regulations to match the pace of technological change.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Robinhood’s Financial Standing & Stock Volatility

[01:09 – 02:03]

• Robinhood reported its first billion-dollar revenue quarter, marking record net income and net deposits in 2024 ($50 billion).
  • “The business has been doing tremendously well. ...we had our first billion dollar revenue quarter in the company's history. ...record net income, profits, record net deposits.” — Vlad Tenev [01:09]
• Tenev downplays the significance of daily stock fluctuations, focusing on long-term product innovation and business health.
  • “We don't really try to look at this stuff day to day because then we get wrapped up into the macro and things that are outside of our control. ...Some days it'll go up, some days it'll go down.” — Vlad Tenev [01:32]

2. Customer Behavior During Market Swings

[02:10 – 02:53]

• Robinhood’s clients tend to remain “long innovation”—favoring technology stocks even during declines, seeing drops as buying opportunities.
  • “Our customers tend to be long innovation...they view these as buying opportunities. ...They have a long term perspective on these things.” — Vlad Tenev [02:18]

3. Robinhood Legend and Active Traders

[03:03 – 04:12]

• Robinhood has targeted sophisticated traders with its new active trader platform, Robinhood Legend, already achieving a $50 million annual revenue run rate.
  • “Active traders tend to be more sophisticated and...they can deploy [trading] strategies regardless of market conditions.” — Vlad Tenev [03:03]
• This segment is more resilient in downturns, as active traders continue to trade amid volatility.

4. Company Priorities and Metrics

[04:27 – 05:18]

• Tenev emphasizes product velocity and innovation above all market metrics.
  • “All that matters is the rate of innovation and the rate of positive technological change.” — Vlad Tenev [04:51]
• Plans for three major product launches in the coming year and ongoing business diversification.

5. Crypto: Opportunities, Regulation, and Comparison with Coinbase

[05:18 – 06:34]

• Robinhood is seen as a rising competitor to Coinbase in crypto services.
  • Notes the crypto sector remains nascent; institutions still hesitant to participate fully.
• Tenev criticizes US regulations that prohibit connecting crypto to real-world assets.
  • “We're still in the US generally not allowed to connect crypto technology to real assets like stocks and other securities.” — Vlad Tenev [05:59]

6. Regulatory Environment & SEC Investigation

[06:17 – 07:04]

• The SEC recently closed its crypto investigation into Robinhood with no enforcement action.
• Tenev supports having financial regulators to protect customers and ensure trust, calling regulation “good for business.”
  • “Regulation is good for our business, not just good for customers. And we know how to operate in a highly regulated arena.” — Vlad Tenev [06:51]

7. Tokenization, Private Assets & Rethinking Accreditation

[07:10 – 10:04]

• Tenev makes a strong case for rethinking accreditation rules, advocating for greater retail access to private equity and startup shares (e.g., SpaceX, OpenAI).
  • “A lot of these rules were created in a different time...I think now with basically an infinite amount of information on the Internet, AI that can help you distill it...those concerns just don't make sense.” — Vlad Tenev [07:48]
• Suggests robust disclosure requirements and risk clarifications can protect investors instead of blanket restrictions.
• Sees tokenization as a transformative opportunity to democratize not just public markets, but private and alternative assets as well.

8. Industry Partnerships and Expansion into Tokenized Funds

[10:04 – 11:19]

• Robinhood is open to partnerships aimed at retail involvement in tokenized private funds (e.g., with Apollo, BlackRock).
  • “We're generally in conversations with anyone trying to do interesting things in the space. ...If you want to be in the AI sector as a retail investor, there’s relatively few options that you can actually invest in.” — Vlad Tenev [10:33]
• Acknowledges frustration that retail investors have limited AI investment options; most innovation happening in private firms.

9. Engagement with Policy Makers

[11:19 – 12:23]

• Tenev confirms open dialogue with the US administration and officials like David Sachs, who aims for the US to remain a global leader in crypto and AI.
  • “Crypto and AI are the two technology trends that we believe will shape Robinhood's future and the future of the financial industry.” — Vlad Tenev [11:56]

10. Crypto Meme Coins, Listing Standards & Tokenization

[12:23 – 13:56]

• Tenev frames the meme coin boom as double-edged: risky but innovative.
  • “You can sit down in front of some software, create a coin, and have it be trading and...access to investors in five minutes. ...That’s a scary thing, but it's also an incredibly powerful thing.” — Vlad Tenev [13:13]
• Sees tokenization as a way to bring efficiency and accessibility of crypto to traditional, productive assets, balancing risks and oversight.

11. Robinhood’s Long-term Vision

[13:56 – 14:37]

• Tenev’s ambition: Robinhood as the universal financial platform—a place to buy, sell, or invest in any asset class, including real estate, if customers desire.
  • “Every asset that's investable and even, you know, some assets that you'd like to hold in physical form are all in scope of the vision.” — Vlad Tenev [14:19]

12. Harmonic: Tenev’s AI Startup

[14:37 – 15:40]

• Tenev is executive chair at Harmonic, an AI company focused on building an advanced reasoning engine to reduce “hallucinations” in AI-generated content.
  • “The models are very confident, confident about spewing wrong information. ...Those hallucinations can be pretty critical. So we're trying to solve that problem.” — Vlad Tenev [15:19]
• He is involved more than a normal investor, but Robinhood remains his operating focus.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On record performance:
  “We had our first billion dollar revenue quarter in the company's history.” — Vlad Tenev [01:09]

• On customer mindset:
  “Our customers...have a long term perspective on these things. They'd like to be owners of technology and innovation.” — Vlad Tenev [02:18]

• On product innovation:
  “All that matters is the rate of innovation and the rate of positive technological change.” — Vlad Tenev [04:51]

• On regulation:
  “Regulation is good for our business, not just good for customers. And we know how to operate in a highly regulated arena.” — Vlad Tenev [06:51]

• On democratizing private markets:
  “A lot of these rules were created in a different time...those concerns just don't make sense.” — Vlad Tenev [07:48]

• On meme coins & tokenization:
  “You can sit down in front of some software, create a coin...That’s a scary thing, but it's also an incredibly powerful thing.” — Vlad Tenev [13:13]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction & Context: 00:23 – 01:09
• Robinhood Stock Performance & Response: 01:09 – 02:10
• Active Traders & Robinhood Legend: 03:03 – 04:12
• Product Innovation & Company Focus: 04:27 – 05:18
• Crypto Strategy & Regulatory Comparison: 05:18 – 06:34
• SEC Investigation Closure & Regulatory Stance: 06:17 – 07:04
• Tokenization & Access to Private Firms: 07:10 – 10:04
• Retail Access to AI Companies / Fund Partnerships: 10:30 – 11:19
• Policy Engagement & Technology Leadership: 11:32 – 12:23
• Meme Coin Craze & Risks: 12:52 – 13:56
• Universal Investment Platform Vision: 13:56 – 14:37
• Harmonic and AI Hallucination Issues: 14:51 – 15:40

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Conclusion

This episode offers rich insights into the future of retail investing, technological innovation in finance, and the evolving role of regulation. Vlad Tenev positions Robinhood at the forefront of democratizing financial services, advocating for regulatory modernization, broader asset class access, and an embrace of crypto and AI—grounded in both ambition and an appreciation for the risks involved.

Transcript

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[Vlad Tenev]

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[Crypto Show Host]

Here's my question, Tim. At least two of these stocks makes money when people are in the markets, when they're trading, whether things go up and down. But if the risk appetite turns like this, the question is how much money will there to be made until risk appetite comes back? When will that be?

[Bloomberg Interviewer]

Certainly a good question, a good place to start with Robin and chair and CEO Vlad Tenev who joins us right now here in our Bloomberg studio. Vlad, good to see you. Welcome. You heard from Sonali just now. Robinhood stock down nine and a half percent as we speak. It's down more than 30% from that high on February 14th. Look, not an awesome place to start, but you're here in the chair with us.

[Vlad Tenev]

Yeah, yeah. I should have timed this better.

[Bloomberg Interviewer]

Should have timed it better. I know CEOs don't often look at the short term moves in a company's stock, but what's your message for investors on a day like today?

[Vlad Tenev]

Well, I mean, if you look at what has actually happened in Robinhood world, we were, we reported earnings just a week ago, a week and a half ago, and we had our first billion dollar revenue quarter in the company's history. The business has been doing tremendously well. I mean record net income profits, record net deposits, 2024, we had 50 billion of net deposits into the platform. So business is doing well. And if you look back, rewind to the day after earnings, I think the, the stock had a very positive reaction. So I think that's why to your point, we don't really try to look at this stuff day to day because then we get wrapped up into the macro and things that are outside of our control. But we're executing some days it'll go up, some days it'll go down.

[Crypto Show Host]

Speaking of going down, we are looking at a market right now. The Magnificent Seven as tracked by Bloomberg is actually in correction territory.

[Vlad Tenev]

Yeah.

[Crypto Show Host]

How are your clients, the people trading on Robinhood, behaving on a day like today when you have Bitcoin also down below 87,000.

[Vlad Tenev]

Yeah. Generally speaking, when we see days like today, our customers tend to be long innovation and they're long some of these technology names and they, they view these as buying opportunities because I mean another way of looking at it is you can get high quality companies and assets at A discount relative to where they were in previous days. I think our customers, which might surprise some people, have a long term perspective on these things. They'd like to be owners of technology and innovation.

[Bloomberg Interviewer]

Isn't volatility though just a good thing for your platform? Sort of doesn't matter if it goes up or down. Especially with the launch of the new active trader platform, Robinhood Legend just a few months ago.

[Vlad Tenev]

Yeah, what you're saying is right. Active traders tend to be more sophisticated and for those types of customers, they have trading strategies that they can deploy regardless of market conditions. So when markets are going up, you know, obviously they have a set of strategies when they're going down and sideways. Among different derivatives and equity, even equity and options and crypto positions, Active traders have, have the tools and you know, we announced Robinhood Legend at our Hood Summit, which was our event in Miami. We rolled that out over the last couple of months. You guys probably saw that's already up to 50 million in annual revenue run rate. So that product's been, been doing extremely well. And yeah, kind of what's, what might surprise a lot of people. Active trading is more of a, it's a business that is more sustainable even in downturns because the more sophisticated customers are, the more they sort of trade regardless of what's happening in the macro and they deploy different strategies to, to take advantage of opportunities as they see them.

[Crypto Show Host]

I understand that you're maybe not concerned about a one day move in your stock, but as the CEO of Robinhood, you have more people actively. Meaning as we're talking about, the Vix is at 20. Right. To the extent there's one market metric that you watch when you wake up in the morning, what would that be?

[Vlad Tenev]

Yeah, I mean, I really try not to watch the market myself too much. I mean, I'm aware of, I think it's hard to ignore some of these things, but what I'm focused on is how well are we supporting customers? What's the rate of product velocity? Because you know, the rate of product innovation velocity is at the end of the day what matters. It's what matters in the economy and it's what matters in our business. Because day to day things go up and down, but over the long run, we're in a technology business, so all that matters is the rate of innovation and the rate of positive technological change. I think we feel pretty good. I mean, you look at what we've rolled out, what we've delivered to customers, what we're continuing to do this year with three Major product events coming and we're going to continue to diversify the business.

[Crypto Show Host]

Let's double down on one of those products. Cryptocurrency is, of course, this is the crypto show. What is the grand opportunity for Robinhood? You have sell side analysts taking a look at what you're doing and starting to compare you to Coinbase. Are you after their business?

[Vlad Tenev]

Well, I think we compete in the general sense of offering crypto to customers. But also this is a nascent industry and not very many companies have entered yet. It's still. Even though bitcoin has now been around for 15 years, institutions and other companies have been waiting for signals to, to enter the market. So from that sense, it's still quite early. And I wrote about in an op ed that I did for the Washington Post, we're still in the US Generally not allowed to connect crypto technology to real assets like stocks and other securities.

[Crypto Show Host]

Tight on that. We're going to spend like 10 minutes with you on tokenization next.

[Vlad Tenev]

Okay.

[Bloomberg Interviewer]

Hey, before we get there though, I do want to touch on the news yesterday. Robinhood said yesterday the SEC closed that investigation into your crypto operations. It's not pursuing any enforcement action. It does raise the question though, about regulators in general. Do you see a role for financial regulators?

[Vlad Tenev]

I do see a role for financial regulators. I think customers want to know that their assets are safe and that someone is watching over the companies that are providing financial services to them and holding them accountable. And we've been a regulated company for a very long time. You know, we started as a, as a FINRA and SEC regulated broker dealer and expanded from there. So I actually think, you know, regulation is good for our business, not just good for customers. And we know how to operate in a, in a highly regulated arena.

[Bloomberg Interviewer]

All right, sit tight, Vlad. We're going to do some news and then come back in just a minute. We have much more coming up with Vlad Tenev in just a moment with.

[Crypto Show Host]

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev. And Vlad, you spoke to us a couple of weeks ago about the potential for tokenization. You were talking about that op ed you wrote in the Washington Post. And a day like today, I was watching. Okay. Nvidia down almost 2%. You know, it's probably not down 2%. Space X is private stock. Right. You made this point that it was ludicrous that investors could buy Meme Coins without really prohibiting it from regulators. But you cannot get access to private stock. How soon can you buy SpaceX on Robinhood?

[Vlad Tenev]

Yeah, I think that's a Good question. We need a few things to happen in order for this to be possible. The accreditation rules have to be rethought. I think a lot of these rules were created in a different time where the problem was lack of information. You know, it was before the Internet there was no information. So the regulators I think rightly were worried about investors not having access to, not having any knowledge about these companies. I think now with basically an infinite amount of information on the Internet, AI that can help you distill it and synthesize it, a lot of those concerns just don't make sense. So. So I think that's why the rules have to be rethought. I think they were put in for good reasons, but those reasons no longer hold. And then we need to, aside from the accreditation, allow for the capability of connecting crypto technology with real companies. So comprehensive registration rules, platforms, clarity for how platforms can list platforms such as ourselves listing crypto securities. I think, I think all of that.

[Crypto Show Host]

Is going to be private stock.

[Bloomberg Interviewer]

Yeah, I've seen you argue that it's to going good for investors because then they get access to a company such as Open Air Space X, but also good for these companies because then they get access to that capital. What would you say to somebody who's watching or listening right now who says, wait a second, for every anthropic or Open Air Space X there's a Theranos out there, there's a WeWork out there. And these accreditation rules are supposed to protect the investors who are not venture capitalists, those investors who don't have the ability to do that due diligence on those private companies. Companies.

[Vlad Tenev]

Yeah, I think there's ways. Those are legitimate problems that have solutions. I think we can solve those problems through disclosure requirements. In particular, if you're a platform that's offering these securities, whether they be crypto based or otherwise, you should have disclosure requirements. You should clearly delineate between a company like SpaceX that perhaps has high quality audited financials and something that's earlier stage that doesn't. And I think at the end of the day the user should have the ability to decide and self certify. And actually, you know, the platforms can clarify what type of risk, different assets and which buckets fall into.

[Crypto Show Host]

When you say Space X or Open Air, you're talking about single companies and you're talking about companies. You could imagine being public one day, maybe just trading more in private hands until then, or maybe indefinitely. But there are a lot of financial firms that are looking to tokenize Private funds also. Are you in talks with any of them? I mean, this is Apollo, it's blackrock, it's everybody really hoping to make these private equity funds available to retail investors?

[Vlad Tenev]

Yeah, I mean, I think we've been talking to. You should assume we're. We're generally in conversations with anyone trying to do interesting things in the space. I think what we have do to decide is what's interesting to retail. And right now, if I had to pick the biggest pain point that a retail investor has, it's. We're in the midst of perhaps the biggest technological revolution that we've ever seen. AI is like transforming everything. And what can you invest in? I mean, in video and to some degree, Tesla, but no open air, no anthropic. All these companies that are doing huge humanoid robots there, a lot of them are private. So. So I think it's tough right now. If you want to be in the AI sector as a retail investor, there's relatively few options that, that you can actually, that you can actually invest in.

[Bloomberg Interviewer]

You said you're talking to anyone who's doing interesting stuff in the space right now. What about on the regulation side? Are you talking to folks actively in the Trump administration who are working on crypto, who are working on AI, Right.

[Crypto Show Host]

Who have given you some indication of how soon you can get this done?

[Vlad Tenev]

Yeah, I mean, I'd say that when we talk to folks in the administration, everyone's really motivated to make the US the leader in this industry. You know, they have. There's these two technological shifts that are happening, crypto and AI, and they're happening simultaneously.

[Bloomberg Interviewer]

Have you been able to speak with David Sachs?

[Vlad Tenev]

I have, yeah. Yeah. You know, I've known him for a while. I think I'm excited about David Sachs coming in. And actually, if you saw our investor day, crypto and AI are the two technology trends that we believe will shape Robinhood's future and the future of the financial industry. So. So actually seeing that the government is aligning itself with, with these trends and making sure that the US is number one, I think, I think it'll help us. It'll help the companies like Robinhood that are trying to be on the leading edge of these industries.

[Crypto Show Host]

You know, I appreciate your note there on regulation having its place, because more recently, a lot of people in the crypto industry very excited about a pullback. And while you can understand that the way the last couple of years have gone, you have seen this exuberance that has pushed many, many retail investors into very many meme coins you have seen an acknowledgment here that listing standards might start to loosen up. What do you make of the meme coin frenzy that probably doesn't look that good to many people today?

[Vlad Tenev]

Yeah, I mean, I think that this is a new thing. I think the use cases of different types of coins are yet to be discovered. People are innovating very fast in the space. But. But two things. One, the fact that it's so easy to create a coin and tap into global liquidity and, and actually like the creation process, you know, you can, you can sit down in front of some software, create a coin and have it be trading and, you know, access to investors in five minutes. That's also, that's a scary thing, but it's also an incredibly powerful thing. If you juxtapose it with how cumbersome the IPO process is and it takes months, companies aren't doing it. And that's why I think tokenization is so interesting, because if you juxtapose these things, things, it's so clear what the benefits would be of bringing crypto technology. In particular these, like the ease of listing and tapping global liquidity into real world productive assets.

[Bloomberg Interviewer]

You said that you want Robin to be the place where customers can buy, sell, trade any financial asset or conduct any financial transaction. What is your ultimate vision here? I mean, is this going to be a place where people could buy and sell real estate state one day?

[Vlad Tenev]

I think so. I think whatever a customer wants to invest in. And there actually is an overlap with real estate between, you know, assets that you actually utilize and are also investments. And a lot of our customers are interested in that. So, yeah, every asset that's investable and even, you know, some assets that you'd like to hold and physical form are all in scope of the vision.

[Bloomberg Interviewer]

Hey, before we let you go, want to hear a little bit about the new startup, new ish Harmonic, that you co founded back in 2023. You're looking to build the world's most advanced reasoning engine. You're also executive chairman there. How do you divide your time right now?

[Vlad Tenev]

Well, so I'm, I'm chairman, which is a board role and I'd say I'm more involved than I, much more involved than a typical angel investment. But there's an amazing CEO and a great team at Harmonic that are operating day to day and you know, they let me help them out and hang out from time to time, but I'm not operating like, like I am at Robinhood Mathematical Superintelligence.

[Crypto Show Host]

So I hear very complicated things going on.

[Vlad Tenev]

I think solving a real problem, I mean, like, the models need to right now, the models are very confident, confident about spewing wrong information. And in a lot of domains like financial services and even news media, those hallucinations can be, can be pretty, pretty critical. So we're trying to solve that problem.

[Crypto Show Host]

ROBIN CEO Vlad ten of we thank you for joining us here.

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