Robinhood’s newest product pitch — tokenized variations of personal firm shares like OpenAI and SpaceX — is already drawing warmth. Whereas the buying and selling app claims these tokens let retail customers “get publicity” to pre-IPO giants, it seems they don’t signify any precise fairness. Based on Ripple CTO David Schwartz, if issues go sideways, the authorized security internet is basically this: simply sue us.
Final week, Vlad Tenev unveiled Robinhood’s new merchandise, together with an expanded crypto app, a Gold card rebranded for crypto perks and 24/7 tokenized buying and selling of each private and non-private equities. Robinhood guarantees that dividends and inventory splits for U.S. shares like Apple and Nvidia shall be mirrored within the tokens.
Nonetheless, for firms like OpenAI and SpaceX, there’s a twist: these will not be actual shares however reasonably artificial publicity wrapped in blockchain and constructed on Arbitrum, however with its personal layer 2 in growth.
What’s underneath the hood?
Schwartz, responding to rising confusion on X, defined that the tokens are designed to reflect the conduct of precise shares — together with splits, dividends and different occasions — however don’t include possession, voting rights or any authorized stake.
Robinhood guarantees that they may make the token carry out very equally to the underlying inventory, mirroring splits, dividends, acquisitions, and so forth. In the event that they fail to take action, you’ll be able to sue them, assuming they continue to be solvent.https://t.co/yfkurQWnYW
— David ‘JoelKatz’ Schwartz (@JoelKatz) July 9, 2025
There is no such thing as a actual backing underneath the hood, solely a promise from Robinhood to simulate the expertise. If the corporate fails to comply with by way of, customers are left with authorized motion as their solely recourse, supplied the agency remains to be solvent when that point comes.
Regardless of this setup, Robinhood says it has already been flooded with requests from different non-public firms that need to provide their shares in tokenized type. The mannequin skips over conventional boundaries like accredited investor standing, giving retail customers artificial entry to Silicon Valley heavyweights.
However and not using a public market value to anchor valuations, or clearly outlined guidelines for dividend-like payouts, the tokens elevate extra questions than solutions.
