AMC CEO Adam Aron hits out at Robinhood over tokenized AMC shares

AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron has rejected Robinhood’s tokenized product linked to AMC shares and said the theater chain will seek legal advice over an offering created without the company’s involvement.

According to Aron, AMC has no connection to Robinhood’s effort involving tokenized real-world assets and Stock Tokens, despite a product carrying the company’s name and tracking its publicly traded shares.

“Robinhood apparently is behind an effort related to ‘tokenized real-world assets including Stock Tokens’ for AMC Entertainment,” Aron wrote on X on Thursday. “We have no connection to this at all, and do not condone it in any way.”

The AMC chief described the practice as “contemptible” and “outrageous,” adding that the company plans to ask outside securities counsel to examine the matter.

AMC rejects Robinhood tokenized stock product

Aron’s objection centers on a distinction between AMC’s publicly traded shares and a blockchain-based financial product designed to provide exposure to their price.

Robinhood’s stock tokens do not make investors shareholders of the companies they track. Its Classic Stock Tokens are derivative contracts that provide economic exposure to U.S. stocks and exchange-traded products, while holders do not own the underlying shares or receive shareholder rights such as voting rights.

Robinhood owns the assets supporting its Classic Stock Tokens and holds them through a U.S.-licensed institution. The contracts are offered under MiFID II in Europe, according to the brokerage.

A separate generation of transferable Robinhood Stock Tokens uses a different structure. The ERC-20 assets are tokenized debt securities issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited and provide economic exposure to underlying securities without granting legal or beneficial rights against the companies that issued those shares.

The distinction has become more visible as financial firms experiment with different structures for putting stock exposure on blockchains. Some products are derivatives that follow a security’s price, while other models hold shares through custodians and issue tokens backed by the underlying equity.

Issuer-sponsored tokenization goes further by placing registered shares onchain with the participation of the company whose equity is being represented.

Robinhood has made the first model a major part of its international expansion. Its European platform currently advertises more than 2,000 Classic Stock Tokens linked to U.S. stocks and exchange-traded products, with trading available around the clock from Monday through Friday.

Robinhood has expanded tokenized stocks onchain

Robinhood’s tokenization plans moved further onchain in July when the company launched Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum Layer 2 network built using Arbitrum technology.

As crypto.news previously reported, the July 1 rollout opened Stock Token trading through Robinhood Wallet to eligible users across more than 120 countries, subject to local restrictions. The network was built to support tokenized real-world assets alongside decentralized finance applications.

Robinhood Chain launched with 95 tokenized equities and infrastructure that allowed the assets to interact with decentralized exchanges and lending applications. Stock Tokens on the network can be transferred as ERC-20 assets and integrated into onchain applications.

Usage has since increased. Combined tokenized-stock trading volume through Uniswap on Robinhood Chain reached $1 billion in August, according to Uniswap founder Hayden Adams.

The products remain unavailable to U.S. investors. Robinhood says the Stock Tokens issued by its Jersey entity are not registered under U.S. securities laws and cannot be offered, sold or delivered directly or indirectly in the United States or to U.S. persons.

Robinhood’s tokenization strategy has expanded beyond simply recreating the trading experience of a brokerage account. Stock Tokens on its blockchain can be transferred between supported wallets and applications, traded through decentralized exchanges and integrated into DeFi products.

The network had already attracted $431 million in total value locked and nearly $400 million in stablecoin market capitalization within three weeks of launch, according to a FalconX report covered in July. Robinhood’s tokenized stocks stood at approximately $14 million at the time, compared with roughly $851 million for Ondo and around $481 million for xStocks.

OpenAI previously rejected Robinhood tokens

AMC is not the first company to object to a Robinhood product carrying its name without its participation.

OpenAI rejected Robinhood tokens linked to the privately held artificial intelligence company in July 2025 after the brokerage announced a promotion giving eligible European customers exposure to OpenAI and SpaceX.

“These ‘OpenAI tokens’ are not OpenAI equity,” the company said at the time, adding that it had not partnered with Robinhood or endorsed the offering.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev defended the product after OpenAI’s response, explaining that the tokens were intended to provide retail investors with indirect exposure to private assets. The structure used a special-purpose vehicle holding an economic interest linked to OpenAI rather than shares issued directly to token holders by the company.

The disagreement exposed the same ownership distinction now involved in AMC’s objection: a financial product can track or provide economic exposure to a company without being equity issued or endorsed by that company.

Robinhood’s publicly traded Stock Tokens use similar terminology while carrying specific disclosures about what investors receive. The company states that holders gain economic exposure to the underlying security but do not obtain legal or beneficial rights against its issuer.

Tokenized stock models are taking different forms

Other financial and crypto companies are pursuing structures that more directly connect tokens with the underlying shares.

Base founder Jesse Pollak said in July that the Ethereum Layer 2 network and Coinbase were working on 1:1-backed tokenized stocks designed to be supported by actual underlying shares.

Pollak contrasted the planned structure with Robinhood’s derivatives, saying Coinbase and Base were preparing a model backed one-for-one by equity. He acknowledged at the time that Robinhood had moved faster in bringing tokenized equities into an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible environment.

Robinhood itself has continued to build infrastructure around its version of the market. Its July mainnet rollout brought tokenized stocks together with decentralized lending, perpetual futures and other blockchain-based financial products.

Stock Tokens can use Chainlink price feeds on Robinhood Chain, allowing applications to read prices directly onchain. The ERC-20 format means developers can integrate the assets into compatible wallets, trading venues and DeFi protocols without requiring a separate token standard.

AMC has not announced legal action against Robinhood. Aron said the company will first ask outside securities counsel to review the tokenized AMC product and the circumstances surrounding its use of the company’s name.