(Bloomberg) — Robinhood Markets Inc. Chief Executive Officer Vlad Tenev said retail investors are largely excluded from the “huge opportunity” available in private markets.
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“A big tragedy is that private markets are where the bulk of the interesting appreciation and exposure is nowadays,” Tenev said in an interview with David Rubenstein for an episode of Bloomberg Wealth. “It’s a shame that it’s so difficult to get exposure in the US. We’re obviously working to solve that.”
Robinhood has already taken steps in that direction, offering tokens to European retail clients last month that it said effectively give users exposure to private companies, including OpenAI, without technically representing equity in those firms. The move sparked concern about transparency in how brokers calculate the products’ value, as well as debate about their safety.
Both retail and institutional investors have been drawn to private companies. Earlier this month, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. said they’re adding research on private companies in sectors such as artificial intelligence and aerospace. Surging valuations among such companies have been triggering a surge in retail interest.
“That’s where I would point to as the greatest remaining iniquity and opportunity in our capital markets,” Tenev said.
To watch more of David Rubenstein’s interview with Robinhood’s Vlad Tenev, watch Bloomberg Wealth on Sept. 9 at 9 p.m. New York time on Bloomberg Television.
(Adds token giveaway in third paragraph. A previous version of this story corrected references to SpaceX and OpenAI.)
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