Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday to defend the company’s tokenized stock products after AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron publicly attacked them last week.
BREAKING: Robinhood CEO says companies can’t control how their stock is tokenized
The comments come on the heels of AMC CEO Adam Aron’s fiery criticism of Robinhood’s tokenized stocks, which include tokenized AMC shares.
Aron said that the increasingly popular practice of…
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Tenev argued that once a company’s stock is publicly traded, it loses control over every financial product built around it by third parties.
“Issuers should have control and do have control over the rights and obligations of the stock that they issue, but that doesn’t mean they control everything about it,” he said.
The dispute started when Aron said on X that AMC had no connection to Robinhood’s tokenized product and did not endorse it. He called the arrangement “contemptible, outrageous, disgusting, detestable, inexcusable, vile” and demanded Robinhood cease and desist trading tokens tied to AMC.
Tenev’s first public response had been a blunt “What’s the concern?” before Wednesday’s more detailed defence on CNBC.
Robinhood’s stock tokens are structured as debt securities, issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited, a separate entity from its U.S. brokerage. Each token is backed 1:1 by an underlying share held as collateral.
Token holders receive dividends but do not get voting rights attached to the underlying shares. When asked whether Robinhood plans to vote those shares on behalf of token holders, Tenev said the company had not yet announced its plans.
The products are offered under Regulation S, meaning they are not available to U.S. customers.
Tenev said whether issuer consent is required depends on how a product is structured, and that Robinhood’s token model should not automatically require consent from referenced companies.
Other tokenization executives have drawn a line between Robinhood’s approach and what they see as a true tokenized stock.
Graham Rodford, CEO of U.K.-regulated digital exchange Archax, said there is an important difference between putting an actual share on a blockchain and issuing a separate instrument that tracks it. “A tokenized stock should mean the stock, tokenized,” he said.
Carlos Domingo, CEO of Securitize, pointed to one AMC-linked token trading pair that changed hands at roughly 60 times AMC’s reference share price, raising concerns about price accuracy in thin token markets.
Armani Ferrante, co-founder and CEO of Backpack, said some of AMC’s concerns around capital formation had substance, arguing that token demand does not necessarily flow through to demand for the underlying stock.
AMC’s outside securities counsel review is still pending. Robinhood has continued to defend its token structure publicly, with no regulatory action announced as of Wednesday.
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