Roubini Backs Technodollar Tokenized ETF Security
Economist Nouriel Roubini, a longtime crypto critic, has announced support for the Technodollar, a tokenized security backed by his Nasdaq-listed Atlas America Fund ETF. The asset is designed to help investors preserve wealth during global financial crises.
Yuri Konnov
USAFi is branded as the "Technodollar" and structured as an ERC-20 digital security designed to preserve wealth during periods of global financial stress. The underlying collateral is the Atlas America Fund (Nasdaq: USAF), which combines U.S. Treasury bonds, gold, REITs, and food commodities to provide diversified asset exposure. Atlas Capital Team's Dubai subsidiary, Atlas AI Labs, has secured in-principle approval from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority and is working toward full issuance licensing, with the product planned for launch in the third quarter under the VARA framework. Securitize, which is planning a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners II, confirmed via an X post that it was selected to build the tokenization infrastructure.
Roubini first entered asset management when the Atlas America Fund launched in late 2024 on Nasdaq. The fund is co-managed by Carlo Zola and Puneet Agarwal alongside Roubini. According to the official Nasdaq press release for the fund's launch, the Atlas America Fund represented Roubini's first entry into the $13 trillion global ETF market. USAFi now extends that vehicle into tokenized form, targeting international investors through a regulated Dubai structure.
Atlas Capital Team CEO Reza Bundy framed the Technodollar as the third phase of dollar-based finance — following the gold-backed and petrodollar eras — according to the whitepaper Roubini co-authored. Bundy's stated distinction is that while stablecoins move dollars, a tokenized investment vehicle backed by productive assets preserves them. The SEC's own guidance on the instrument category is relevant here: the agency has defined a tokenized security as "a financial instrument enumerated in the definition of 'security' under the federal securities laws that is formatted as or represented by a crypto asset, where the record of ownership is maintained in whole or in part on or through one or more crypto networks". Under that taxonomy, USAFi falls into the first category the SEC statement on tokenized securities identifies: a security tokenized by or on behalf of its issuer.
The project enters a market that has grown substantially. According to rwa.xyz data cited by CoinDesk, major firms including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Apollo have launched tokenized investment products, helping push the market for tokenized assets above $30 billion excluding stablecoins. Securitize has been central to several of those products, including its work with BlackRock.
The announcement does not disclose the specific blockchain network on which USAFi will be issued beyond the ERC-20 standard, nor does it identify institutional distribution partners. The whitepaper does not establish the redemption mechanics — specifically whether holders can redeem USAFi tokens directly for underlying ETF shares or only for cash equivalents. The announcement also does not confirm whether the VARA in-principle approval covers secondary-market trading of the token or only primary issuance.
What the announcement does establish is that Atlas Capital Team has a named tokenization provider in Securitize, a regulatory jurisdiction in Dubai under VARA, and a planned Q3 2026 launch window. It does not confirm a live product, a completed VARA full-issuance licence, a disclosed fee structure, or any named institutional investor commitments to the offering.
