Securitize's Redfearn: DeFi Can Disrupt Stock Lending
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- Brett Redfearn, Securitize's president and the SEC's former director of trading and markets, argues that putting real-world assets on-chain will let retail investors capture stock-lending revenue currently absorbed by centralized brokerages
- Robinhood retains roughly 85% of stock-lending revenue generated from customer portfolios, while Charles Schwab splits the proceeds roughly 50/50, per NerdWallet figures cited in the report
- Securitize, a BlackRock-backed tokenization specialist, is set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday under the ticker symbol "SECZ"
- Compass Point analyst Ed Engel wrote that "tokenized equities compatible with DeFi" are likely to be among new products Robinhood unveils Wednesday, following the brokerage's experimentation with the format for European customers
- Redfearn acknowledged that DeFi's potential to fuel Securitize's growth ultimately depends on efforts by unaffiliated developers working in the tokenized-securities ecosystem
- Redfearn joined Securitize in April, the same firm that has enabled companies including BlackRock to issue securities directly on-chain
Why it matters: Retail investors currently lose the bulk of stock-lending income to intermediaries—Robinhood alone keeps about 85%—and Securitize's NYSE debut under "SECZ" will test whether tokenization can redirect that revenue stream to consumers. Robinhood's expected Wednesday rollout of tokenized equities shows incumbent brokerages are already moving toward this model on their own terms.
