Summary
- Robinhood Chief Executive Vlad Tenev informed CNBC on Wednesday that Robinhood does not require AMC’s permission to issue stock tokens linked to the cinema chain’s equity.
- Tenev stated that Robinhood’s equity tokens operate as debt securities secured on a one-to-one basis by the actual underlying shares kept as collateral.
- These remarks follow a public disagreement where AMC boss Adam Aron labeled Robinhood’s stock tokens a “fake market” and warned he would escalate the matter to the SEC.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev pushed back against AMC Entertainment leader Adam Aron, who last week criticized the trading application for establishing a “fake market” for AMC stock and threatened to bring the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into the fray.
During an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday, Tenev contended that once a company’s equities are publicly traded, it cannot dictate every financial instrument constructed around them.
“Issuers ought to have control and indeed possess control regarding the privileges and duties associated with the stock they release, yet that implies they dictate everything concerning it,” he remarked. “Specifically, they lack authority over other corporations releasing separate securities that reference those equities.”
“Issuer approval relies upon what precisely you are executing,” he supplemented. “And concerning Robinhood equity tokens […] those ought not to automatically demand issuer consent.”
The conversation marked Tenev’s initial public statement since the conflict ignited the previous week, when Aron posted on X that AMC held zero affiliation with Robinhood’s tokenized offering and refused to endorse it. Aron characterized the activity as “contemptible” and “unacceptable,” subsequently demanding that Robinhood “halt and desist” trading tokens associated with AMC.
Tenev likewise provided further clarification regarding how Robinhood’s equity tokens are structured, maintaining that every single token is backed one-to-one by a foundational share maintained as collateral, whereas the token itself functions as a debt security. Shareholders obtain dividends though not the voting privileges tied to the underlying equities.
When questioned whether Robinhood intends to exercise voting rights on the shares maintained as collateral, Tenev noted that the company has not yet disclosed its intentions.
The controversy sparked a wider conversation concerning what should qualify as a tokenized equity and whether businesses ought to possess a voice when third parties generate instruments linked to their shares.
Graham Rodford, chief executive of the United Kingdom-regulated digital asset platform Archax, asserted that a significant difference exists between placing an actual share onto a blockchain versus releasing an independent instrument that tracks it.
Carlos Domingo, leader of tokenization enterprise Securitize (SECZ), additionally expressed worries regarding how such instruments trade. He drew attention to a particular AMC-connected token trading pair that exchanged hands at roughly 60 times the reference share price of AMC, drawing notice to the risk that valuations in illiquid token markets might detach from the equities they are meant to follow.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/09/09/robinhood-s-ceo-vlad-tenev-defends-stock-tokens-in-escalating-fight-with-amc-ceo.
