Tokenizing Everything

Robinhood Accelerates their Blockchain Initiatives -– Abdul Al Ali, Venture Investor at Decasonic 

The on-chain movement is accelerating, evolving from a gateway to a seamless on-chain onramp for traditional CEX and Fintech users. Today, we are witnessing the emergence of a tokenization economy, driven by the vision of tokenizing everything. This includes traditional financial products, such as equities, credit, and other traditional financial assets, moving on-chain at a rapid pace. This trend towards tokenized equities is gaining substantial momentum, fueled by growing institutional adoption, and a pro-regulatory environment. 

Beyond just tokenization of assets, these assets are poised to play a new role: serving as on-chain collateral. This unlocks deeper DeFi activity, new channels for monetization, accelerated adoption, and multifaceted opportunities to earn yield. Here’s where the next unlock happens, where AI Agents initially in the form of wealth managers, and increasingly as on-chain transaction agents can accelerate tokenization and activity at the intersection of Fintech, Web3, and AI. 

Robinhood: L2 and Tokenization

On June 30, 2025, Robinhood announced a suite of new products and services at their “To Catch a Token” event during ETH CC. This event introduced the launch of tokenized US stocks and ETFs for EU customers, and introduced Robinhood’s $HOOD L2 chain. Robinhood’s L2 is built on Arbitrum, with Robinhood initially tokenizing and issuing stocks on $ARB prior to the migration of assets to their chain in the future. Part of their offering includes making over 200 stocks and ETFs available for EU users, with the key differentiator being the ownership of tokenized equities enabling holders to receive dividends through ownership. The ultimate goal as announced by Robinhood directly is enabling 24/7 trading, self-custody, and bridging of assets. 

Vlad, the founder of $HOOD, proclaimed Robinhood’s L2 as the “first Ethereum Layer 2 optimized for RWA via Arbitrum, from public to private to global.” Relevant to note is the chain-specific functionality highlighted by Vlad, with the key optimizations centered around trading for RWA, tokenizes stocks, ETFs, private equity, private company shares, and more. 

As of the recent available figures, Robinhood has nearly ~$180.5B in yearly equities notional trading volume, and roughly ~$11.7B in crypto notional trading volume. It is hard to imagine that an application such as Robinhood will be unable to effectively capture and benefit from the introduction of their chain, with a potential increase in yearly notional equities trading volume of ~10-20x due to the enhanced reach, distribution, and accessibility offered by their tokenized offering. 

This L2 aims to dominate distribution, enabling the transition of Robinhood towards tokenizing everything, and to transition towards on-chain adoption. Relevant to note was the same day announcement of a partnership between xStocks and Kraken, enabling tokenized equities traded on Solana for non-US clients.This announcement brought over 60+ US stocks to be traded on Kraken, enabling 24/7, 5 days a week trading of tokenized stocks, with the opportunity to use xStocks onchain as collateral in DeFi protocol. 

Key Features of the Robinhood L2

Some of the key features highlighted by Robinhood for their upcoming L2 includes:

1. Tokenized US Equities: Enabling European users access and exposure to over 200 US stocks and ETFs via Robinhood Stock Tokens. These tokens have a “zero commission,” fee model and provide direct dividend payments to owners. 

   1. Part of this program is the introduction of 24/5 trading, enabling stocks to be traded 24hrs/business day. 

2. Collateral: Tokens will be able to be used as collateral within DeFi protocols, enabling users to borrow crypto against their $MSTR stocks in the near-future post Robinhood’s chain launch. 

   1. Existing DEXs, DeFi Protocols, Lending/Borrowing protocols on Arbitrum potentially stand to immediately benefit post-launch of the chain due to their strategic position and existence on Arbitrum. 

3. Crypto Staking for US and EU Users: Following the trend of institutional adoption for staking, especially with the recent institutional sentiment shift towards $ETH and the underlying funds flow activity, this is a valuable opportunity for users. Robinhood enables/will enable both staking for $ETH and $SOL. 

   1. We are seeing the net increase in stake supply of $ETH currently at 30% of the total supply. 

   2. Staking by means of institutional inflows provides durability for the underlying chain, is a signal of adoption, and could accompany significant chain-related activity. 

4. At Decasonic, we are a Web3 x AI VC fund. An underrepresented feature during the event was Cortex, which is the introduction of Robinhood’s AI Wealth Management Assistant, enabling personalized insights and recommendations for users based on their portfolios. 

   
   

Arbitrum

Where does Arbitrum stand today? As a chain, Arbitrum holds $2.7B in DeFi TVL based on the latest figures from DeFiLlama. Assessing the weekly growth in transactions and the associated weekly active addresses, post Robinhood announcement we are seeing a growth of 8-10% WoW, indicating underlying demand for the tokenized offerings. 

Source: Link

Source: Link.

Kraken

In addition to Robinhood’s announcement with their L2, we revisit the announcement of Kraken and Ink. Kraken’s Ink Chain launched on mainnet in December 2024, as an L2 with core functionality rooted in DeFi function. It is built on the OP stack, with the vision of Ink to become the “House of DeFi” for both retail and institutional users. The vision of Kraken’s Ink chain is to reduce the complexity and friction of DeFi, enabling Kraken to be a bridge from CEX to DEX. 

Ink prioritizes and emphasizes ease of use, aggregation, automation, and a simple user-centric user experience. Users are able to navigate DeFi with less complexity, with an interoperability within the Superchain network, primarily through an on-ramp directly from the Kraken Exchange and platform. 

Ink Chain: Key Adoption Metrics

The TVL of Ink is growing. The most recent TVL figure as of the writing of this article is $98.18M. The DEX volume on the chain over 24hrs hovers between $1.5M to $2.67M, with the main DEX on Ink being Velodrome Finance.  

It’s interesting to see how strong the retention on Ink is, with a 30D MA for the number of active wallet addresses on-chain being ~76.6k. Considering how users of Kraken can directly access Ink from the Kraken Wallet and Kraken Exchange products, enabling users to interact on Ink without bridging and through their exchange platform makes retention relatively ‘simpler,’ as it meets users where they currently are at. Kraken actively serves more than ~10M DAU on their main exchange platform, with the number of active addresses representing ~0.766% of the total DAU of the exchange. It is not surprising to imagine that there could be a 10% conversion rate from Kraken’s DAU or MAU to active addresses, potentially representing a 1M Active Address growth on Ink, a ~13.1x growth from today’s figures.

Relevant to note; Kraken has $40B in assets held for their clients. A potential 10% movement of Client Assets on-chain, would represent $4B in TVL, or a 40.74x growth in the chain’s current TVL figures. Assets in the chain would likely be used for collateral, lending, and/or borrowing activity. 

Source: Link

Kraken and xStocks

xStocks represent tokenized assets of U.S. Stocks, primarily created to bring equities on-chain and enabling equities to be used in DeFi dApps. The immediate “unlock,” enabled by xStocks is enhanced accessibility for trading and equities ownership, represented through greater availability of trading hours, enhanced fractionalized ownership equity offerings, and near instant settlement. 

As of the latest figures on the value of total on-chain tokenized stocks from RWA.XYZ, they represent nearly ~$465M. The figure continues to grow relative to the value of the entire equities market, but what is more relevant to note is the 30D growth rate, primarily reflected through the “Holders” and the “Monthly Active Addresses” growth rate. The “MAA” figure grew by nearly ~15,585%, with the Holders figure growing by ~1,955%. These are significant changes, and indicate the appetite and appeal for on-chain tokenized equities. Given the restrictions on US users with xStocks and tokenized equities platforms, the core appeal is to a user base outside the US, offering access to products previously inaccessible. 

Source: Link

CoinGecko recently listed a “xStocks” Ecosystem category, which coincided with the listing of the category by CoinMarketCap: link. The collective value of the categorized equities stands at a $32M value, or nearly 6% of the collective tokenized stocks market cap identified by RWA.XYZ. The figure continues to grow, with the Mag7 stocks primarily driving most of the volume.

Coinbase and Base

Coinbase’s Base chain has been live for nearly 2 years since August 9, 2023. The timing of this article coincides with Coinbase’s release of an upgraded Base wallet, which now integrates on-chain dApps with an improved focus on social, commerce, and AI. In addition to the aforementioned tokenized equity offerings by Robinhood and Kraken, Coinbase is actively seeking SEC approval to offer tokenized stocks. As of June 18, 2025, Coinbase is still seeking approval for their tokenized equities offerings.

As a chain, Base has been a successful launch by Coinbase. Since mainnet, Base has generated nearly ~$145.37M in collective revenue. The total addresses on the chain has exceeded 215M, which is nearly 2.04x the size of the collective registered global Coinbase users, 105M. The 7D average for new wallet addresses on Base is nearly ~850k over the past month, with a growth trendline indicating further acceleration towards adoption and onboarding more and more wallets. The TVL on Base has been accelerating towards ~$4B, placing Base in the top 6 chains by DeFi TVL amidst a growth in their adoption figures. 

Source: Link

Opportunities

Looking at the current identified opportunities as it relates to tokenization and the launch of chains by CEXs and FinTech companies, it’s relevant to highlight the importance of the funnel of on-chain adoption. Exchanges and FinTech applications serve as an entry point for on-chain adoption and movement of funds, enabling users to interact on-chain with minimal complexity, and allowing them to explore chains without leaving their applications (meeting a user where they already are). The other major differentiator to highlight is the current trend in tokenized equity growth, which is primarily highlighted as enabling greater adoption (holder counts, ownership) and availability (trading hours). This differentiator is not necessarily entirely innovative, especially when noting plans by Nasdaq to move towards 24/5 trading in the second half of 2025, meaning that equities will be tradeable around the clock during business days of the week. 

We believe some of the opportunities that will continue to emerge include:

1. On-chain Equities DeFi: Utilizing the equities and other tokenized offerings for on-chain DeFi activity, including as collateral and in borrowing, lending, and yield. 

2. AI Wealth Managers: Given the complexity of introduction of DeFi and other equities assets typically inaccessible to many audiences, the introduction of AI Wealth Managers embedded into FinTech dApps and CEXs will become increasingly relevant and a major unlock for users. 

   1. Robinhood is adding Cortex, an AI-powered portfolio analysis and wealth advisor. 

   2. Coinbase: Increasing offering AI Agents and AI-powered insights, including the recent integration with Perplexity to enable users to analyze crypto insights powered by Coinbase’s data. 

3. AI Agents: The next phase of “Wealth Managers,” providing recommendations to users will be on-chain AI Agents. This will take the form of transforming both user intents and portfolio/insight recommendations from wealth managers into AI Agents, and executing transactions on behalf of users.

   
   

Conclusion

The pace of tokenization is accelerating across equities, assets, and beyond. CEXs/FinTech platforms often serve as a gateway to on-chain adoption and tokenization, utilizing their underlying existing user base in order to accelerate the pace of both user inflow to underlying chains, and funds flow to their ecosystems. Robinhood, Kraken, and Coinbase are at the forefront of adoption and tokenized equity suite acceleration, primarily through their L2s.

As distribution, accessibility, and composability transforms what it means to own and interact with assets, we believe the opportunity lies not only in reimagining the core market infrastructure, but empowering founders, platforms, and issuers to accelerate the adoption of tokenization through on-chain movement and onboarding. At Decasonic, we are committed partners to those pushing the boundaries at the intersection of Web3, AI, and tokenization. If you are building at this intersection, reach out to us at Decasonic. 

The content of these blog posts is strictly for informational and educational purposes and is not intended as investment advice, or as a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any asset. Nothing herein should be considered legal or tax advice. You should consult your own professional advisor before making any financial decision. Decasonic makes no warranties regarding the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the content in these blog posts. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Decasonic. Decasonic disclaims liability for any errors or omissions in these blog posts and for any actions taken based on the information provided.