Tokenized fairness choices for OpenAI being provided to Robinhood customers in Europe are usually not formally licensed by the corporate, the AI big stated in a social media put up.
“These ‘OpenAI tokens’ are not OpenAI equity. We did not partner with Robinhood, were not involved in this, and do not endorse it,” OpenAI posted on X. “Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval — we did not approve any transfer.”
Earlier this week, Robinhood introduced it was launching tokenized inventory buying and selling based mostly on the Arbitrum blockchain to its customers in Europe. As CoinDesk reported earlier, customers can have entry to 200 equities and ETFs, in addition to a secondary marketplace for fairness in scorching startups like OpenAI and SpaceX.
The concept of tokenized fairness in not-yet public firms is nothing new.
In 2018, a blockchain startup known as Swarm stated it might quickly offer tokenized shares in startups — together with Robinhood.
CoinDesk reported on the time that lots of the firms Swarm claimed it might offer fairness in pushed again and stated such a sale could be unauthorized however Swarm stated every part got here from “approved secondary market transactions.”
Taking a look at Robinhood’s present tokenized providing, it is unclear the place the supply of fairness is. There’s some hypothesis that the fairness represents curiosity in OpenAI shares which were already acquired through licensed channels, based mostly on feedback made by Robinhood’s CEO.
Hypothesis:
Through the presentation, Vlad particularly talked about having a relationship with a rich investor with OpenAI / SpaceX shares.
These shares might possible nonetheless be beneath the unique traders title (both a person, or an entity), which OpenAI has already… https://t.co/bfskaDWf5O
— David Hoffman (@TrustlessState) July 2, 2025
Others have warned that OpenAI — and different startups — could be properly inside their rights to not honor the sale.
This highlights one other danger on the personal firm facet I did not deal with yesterday, however we regularly see in these secondary markets. There isn’t any requirement for these firms to honor the sale of the fairness you suppose you personal – in truth I stated lately at a personal convention that I… https://t.co/nyzhjfgXwV
— Rob Hadick ＞|＜ (@HadickM) July 2, 2025
“I expect this natural tension to result in more private companies just cancelling equity sales altogether for those who violate their shareholders’ agreements,” Dragonfly Common Companion Rob Hadick posted on X.
Robinhood didn’t reply to a request for remark from CoinDesk.
