Robinhood and OpenAI are at odds over new “stock tokens” indexed to the valuations of OpenAI and SpaceX. OpenAI denounces derivatives with no real rights. Faced with criticism, Vlad Tenev acknowledges their derivative nature and promises a “tokenization revolution” accessible to the general public.
What are Robinhood’s “stock tokens”?
At the end of June, Robinhood introduced tokens for its European customers offering exposure to more than 200 US stocks and ETFs, including privately held companies such as OpenAI and SpaceX, on the Arbitrum blockchain. These instruments are structured through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) owned by Robinhood, which allows the performance of these companies to be replicated without acquiring their shares. This is likely to cause some concern among the companies involved. On July 2, 2025, OpenAI’s official account commented on this via its X account:
These ‘OpenAI tokens’ are not OpenAI shares. (…) We have not authorized their issuance, so please be careful.
Robinhood did not back down. A few hours later, the group’s CEO and co-founder, Vlad Tenev, responded to OpenAI, again on X:
While it is true that these are not technically “shares,” these tokens offer retail investors exposure to these private assets.
The CEO firmly defended his case, going on to assure users that his “stock tokens” are a revolution, “paving the way for a much more ambitious project” and that “since the announcement, many private companies have already contacted [them], wanting to join the tokenization revolution.”
This response was intended to reassure users alerted by OpenAI about possible confusion between derivatives and actual shares.
Robinhood’s stock tokens were unveiled at a crypto event in Cannes at the end of June, and the company has already issued 213 for less than $5 in fees. According to Robinhood, this is proof of the launch’s success. As with ETFs and other derivative instruments, holders have no voting rights or direct access to capital: the tokens simply replicate price movements.
However, Robinhood promises to expand the offering to more than 200 US stocks and private holdings, while Kraken, Bybit and Gate are already pursuing similar projects for investors outside the US.
For Vlad Tenev, what would block the potential democratization of these tokens is less the technology than the regulation: “Why can an individual buy a risky memecoin but not a fraction of OpenAI?” he asked in the Odd Lots podcast. European regulators, under MiCA, and US regulators will still have to decide on the legal classification of these derivative contracts.
