Robinhood general manager Johann Kerbrat told CoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong conference on Wednesday that gains from stablecoins should be passed on to consumers.
Kobrat also said it should be up to consumers to decide what they want to do with their savings, although they need to be aware of the risks inherent in these products.
“We think we should be able to pass the benefits on to consumers,” Kobrat said. “They don’t want to be locked into a stablecoin that doesn’t earn interest if they can do that on a high-yield savings account.”
However, he said that stablecoins have risks, and issuers, financial technology companies and trading platforms need to let consumers know what these risks are. For example, stablecoins are not insured by the FDIC, which is a difference from traditional bank accounts.
Robinhood’s general manager said consumers need to know which guarantees are in place and which are not so they can decide for themselves “whether to keep it in a high-yield savings account, use stablecoins or use tokenized payments.”
The stablecoin yield debate is at the heart of a cryptocurrency market structure framework or clarification bill being discussed in the United States. The digital asset industry is at odds with traditional bankers, who believe such yields could disastrously compete with the deposit-taking business at the heart of U.S. banks and credit.
market conditions
Moderator Tom Farley (CEO of CoinDesk parent company Bullish) went on to talk about the state of the cryptocurrency market. “The market is down 60% to 65% right now, and it seems to me that retail investors around the world have a really bad view on cryptocurrencies because of what happened on October 10th. Are you optimistic about its return?”
Kobrat said Robinhood is positive about the outlook, which he based on customer buying behavior.
“We’re actually seeing a lot of people buying the dips. We’re seeing them adding to their portfolios,” he said, a significant shift from a few years ago when people largely kept their distance during the cryptocurrency downturn.
Kerbrat said the current legacy financial system “operates on borrowed time” and uses a T+1 (one-day) settlement model that he calls an “outdated relic.”
Kerbrat said the 24-hour waiting period for stock settlement is a systemic risk and that modern blockchain technology is outdated. He advocates a move to “atomic” settlements, where transfer of ownership and payment occur simultaneously, effectively ending the concept of settlement periods entirely.
This vision of a modern marketplace is rooted in Robinhood’s aggressive push for tokenization, which the company sees as a gateway to 24/7 global trading. By moving assets onto the newly launched Robinhood Chain (Ethereum Layer 2 based on the Arbitrum stack), Robinhood aims to enable users to trade tokenized real-world assets such as U.S. stocks and ETFs with the same consistent liquidity as crypto markets.
Sources familiar with 24/7 trading said round-the-clock trading would not be possible until late 2026, when Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange launch their digital asset platforms.
Robinhood isn’t alone in this round-the-clock race to trade tokenized stocks. The New York Stock Exchange announced in mid-January that it plans to launch a blockchain-based, round-the-clock trading venue for tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds later this year.
The launch of the NYSE’s tokenized securities platform is part of ICE’s broader digital strategy, which includes preparing its clearing infrastructure to support 24/7 trading and the potential integration of tokenized collateral. The NYSE’s main rival in the United States, Nasdaq, also revealed its plans for around-the-clock trading in December.