AMC stock jumps 21% overnight as CEO slams Robinhood over ‘outrageous’ tokenized shares
AMC chief Adam Aron called Robinhood's tokenized stock offering unlawful and said outside counsel will review it, as AMC shares rose nearly 21% overnight to $3.07.
AMC Entertainment Holdings CEO and Chairman Adam Aron sharply criticized Robinhood on Thursday for tokenizing U.S. equities, including the cinema chain's own shares, calling the practice unlawful and saying the company had no involvement in it.
In a social media post, Aron said the tokenized versions of U.S. stocks are not registered under federal securities laws and questioned how the offering could be permitted. "I find this practice to be contemptible, outrageous, disgusting, detestable, inexcusable, vile," he wrote, adding: "How can it possibly be legal? We have no connection to this at all, and do not condone it in any way." Aron said AMC would immediately have its outside securities counsel review the matter.
Robinhood CEO and Chairman Vlad Tenev answered the post with a brief question: "What's the concern?"
According to Robinhood's own documentation, its stock tokens are tokenized debt securities issued by offshore affiliate Robinhood Assets. Holders gain exposure to the underlying share but do not receive legal ownership of the company or shareholder rights. The documents state the tokens have not been registered as securities in the United States and may not be offered there.
A similar clash in the past
The dispute echoes an earlier confrontation, when OpenAI publicly rejected Robinhood's token offerings tied to the AI company. OpenAI said the tokens were not OpenAI equity, that it had not partnered with or endorsed the product and that it had not approved any transfer of its shares. Tenev said at the time that the tokens were "not technically equity" but derivatives giving retail investors exposure to a private company, arguing that tokenization should not require opt-in from the firms being tokenized.
Tokenized equities have drawn growing interest for offering round-the-clock trading, faster settlement and access through crypto wallets and onchain markets. Data from The Block's dashboard put the total market cap of tokenized stocks at $13.4 billion as of Sept. 1, up from $2.5 billion at the start of the year.
AMC shares rose nearly 21% in overnight trading to $3.07, according to TradingView.
Source: The Block