Another major Silicon Valley executive backed tokenization as the sector moves from crypto niche to mainstream finance. Airbnb (ABNB) CEO Brian Chesky waded into the tokenization debate on Tuesday, arguing that the real shift isn't blockchain, but what happens to friction once ownership goes digital, and how removing it would make it easier to buy, sell, and invest in assets ranging from real estate to bonds.

In a thread on X, Chesky said he's been watching real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, and that beneath the noise, "something real is happening." He argued the tokens and blockchains themselves aren't the interesting part, but the disappearance of friction, since owning a piece of a building, bond, or fund becoming as easy as sending a message turns ownership from a privilege into a default.

He pointed to fractional ownership, near-instant settlement, markets that never close, and access unbound by geography as the likely outcomes, framing the walls around real assets as friction rather than anything physical.

Airbnb CEO Sees Ownership Becoming Frictionless

Chesky then argued the real bottleneck was never the technology, but trust. Drawing a parallel to Airbnb, he said strangers wouldn't share a home until they believed the system behind it was real, and predicted the same dynamic will play out here: the eventual winner won't have the best token, but whoever earns people's trust to hold the underlying asset.

He closed the thread by predicting the shift will feel slow "and then it won't," likening it to how the internet made information liquid; tokenization, in his view, does the same for ownership.

was down by 0.91% during pre-market trade hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around ABNB remained in the ‘neutral’ zone, while chatter around it stayed at ‘normal’ levels over the past day.

Robinhood’s Tokenization Push Is Gaining Ground

Chesky's comments come as Robinhood Markets Inc’s (HOOD) own tokenization push shows early momentum.

Robinhood Chain, a permissionless Ethereum (ETH) layer-2 network built on the Arbitrum (ARB) stack, launched earlier this month, with day-one integrations including Uniswap (UNI), Chainlink (LINK), Morpho (MORPHO), and dYdX Labs (DYXY).

The network has since processed  in DEX volume over seven days, placing it among the top five chains by that measure. As of Tuesday, the chain has over $12M in RWA active market cap, according to Defilama

was up by 0.76% during the pre-market trade. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around HOOD remained in the ‘neutral’ zone, while chatter around it stayed at ‘normal’ levels over the past day.