Ahead of NYSE Listing, Securitize Exec Says DeFi Can Break Wall Street's Grip on Stock Lending
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- Securitize is set to begin trading on the NYSE on Thursday under ticker "SECZ," a public-market test of tokenization counting BlackRock among its clients.
- Brett Redfearn, Securitize's president and former SEC director of trading and markets, argued that tokenizing real-world assets lets retail investors bypass brokerage middlemen and reclaim stock-lending revenue.
- Robinhood retains roughly 85% of stock-lending revenue from customer portfolios, while Charles Schwab splits the proceeds roughly 50/50, per NerdWallet.
- Compass Point analyst Ed Engel wrote that "tokenized equities compatible with DeFi" will likely be among new products Robinhood unveils Wednesday.
- Securitize acknowledged that its DeFi-fueled growth depends on unaffiliated developers building out the tokenized-securities ecosystem, per President Redfearn.
Why it matters: Securitize's NYSE debut puts a public-market price on tokenization just as Robinhood—cited as pocketing 85% of stock-lending revenue—preps its own DeFi-compatible product launch. If retail investors route idle shares on-chain, brokerages' stock-lending cut faces direct pressure.
