Robinhood CEO Defends Tokenized Stocks After AMC Criticism

According to CNBC, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev defended the company’s push into tokenized stocks on Wednesday after AMC criticized the brokerage’s tokenization efforts. Tenev said public companies do not control every financial product built around their shares once those shares are publicly traded, and he described Robinhood’s stock tokens as a technology-neutral financial wrapper around listed stocks. He said shareholders own transferable property and other financial institutions should be able to create products that reference those shares without seeking issuer permission. Tenev said issuers control the rights and obligations of the stock they issue, but not everything tied to it. He added that issuer consent depends on the specific structure, and said Robinhood stock tokens, which are tokenized securities issued by a separate entity and backed by underlying shares, should not automatically require issuer approval. AMC CEO Adam Aron had criticized the practice, saying tokenization lets Robinhood create exposure to AMC stock without the company’s involvement. Tenev also said holders of stock tokens do not receive voting rights in the underlying company and declined to say how Robinhood plans to exercise the voting rights attached to those shares.