Tokenization could open new opportunities for retail investors to access traditionally restricted asset classes, according to Johann Kerbrat, senior vice president and general manager of Robinhood Crypto, who called it \u201cvery important for financial inclusion.\u201d <\/p>\n
Speaking at the Consensus 2025 event in Toronto, Kerbrat said that some real-world assets, such as real estate and private equity, are available only to up to 10% of the US population. \u201cYou need to be an accredited investor to invest in private equity right now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHow many people can afford a house or an apartment in New York?\u201d he elaborated. \u201cBut you can get a piece of it with fractionalization, through tokenization. And so we think it makes it a lot easier to be exchanged, a lot more accessible for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinhood’s Johann Kerbrat at Consensus 2025. Source: Cointelegraph<\/em><\/p>\n Robinhood has been one of a handful of investment firms or brokerages that have explored RWA tokenization<\/a> in recent months. Others include BlackRock<\/a>, Franklin Templeton<\/a>, Apollo<\/a>, and VanEck<\/a>.<\/p>\n RWA tokenization is often touted as a means to enhance financial accessibility, with most tokenized funds currently concentrated on the private credit and US treasury markets. According<\/a> to RWA.xyz on May 16, the total market capitalization of onchain RWA is $22.5 billion across just 101,457 asset holders. On average, each holder owns $221,867 in onchain assets.<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>MultiBank, MAG, Mavryk ink world\u2019s largest $3B RWA tokenization deal<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Kerbrat also touched on stablecoins, which have emerged as a key crypto use case this cycle. \u201cYou will see 100 stablecoins,\u201d he predicted. <\/p>\n Kerbrat expects a rise in stablecoins that are \u201cmore specialized in a specific market.\u201d According<\/a> to DefiLlama, dollar-pegged stablecoins dominate the stablecoin sector. The two largest, Tether\u2019s USDt (USDT<\/a>) and Circle\u2019s USDC (USDC<\/a>), account for $211.8 billion or 87.1% of the $243.3 billion stablecoin market cap.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you’re trying to move funds from the US to Singapore, maybe you will use a specific stablecoin,\u201d he said. “The shift is going to go from just stablecoin to platforms that are managing all these stablecoins.\u201d<\/p>\n Tether’s USDT has seen its market share surge over the past few years. Source: <\/em>DefiLlama<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Fireblocks policy chief Dea Markova recently told Cointelegraph that there is a growing demand for non-dollar-pegged stablecoins<\/a>. In April, the Italian finance minister warned that dollar-pegged stablecoins represent a greater risk<\/a> than US President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs.<\/p>\nStablecoin evolution will create more \u2018specialized\u2019 tokens<\/h2>\n