Traditional Rails Power Private Markets
Noel Moldvai, CEO of Augment, on building the Robinhood for private markets
The real bottleneck is not trading tech, it is permission and market plumbing. Augment is betting that private market access will expand first through ordinary broker dealer, SPV, and custody rails, because those rails already support money movement, compliance, and issuer approval workflows. Tokenization may eventually add round the clock trading and portability, but it does not solve the harder problem of getting clean supply from companies and existing holders.
-
Across the market, operators keep landing on the same conclusion. Monark argues tokenized private stock will stay niche unless issuers tokenize directly, because existing clearing and custody infrastructure is built to preserve centralized control. EquityZen has also stayed on the sidelines until rules are clearer.
-
In practice, Augment has already built a faster version of private market trading without tokens. It buys shares itself, places them into SPVs, lets investors buy slices in minutes, and supports later resale inside that structure. That approach avoids the failed match problem that comes from company ROFRs and transfer restrictions.
-
Recent market signals support the wait and build approach. Robinhood launched stock tokens in Europe in June 2025 and said its blockchain would support tokenized real world assets, but OpenAI warned on March 12, 2026 that unauthorized tokenized interests in its equity or related SPVs can violate transfer restrictions and be void. The SEC has begun discussing tokenized securities, but its January 2026 staff statement explicitly says it creates no new legal obligations or approvals.
The next phase is likely a hybrid market. Traditional rails will keep winning near term because they let platforms aggregate scarce shares, clear trades, and show positions inside familiar brokerage workflows. If regulation catches up, tokenization becomes an added distribution layer on top of that supply engine, not the thing that creates the market in the first place.