AMC CEO Calls Robinhood Stock Tokens 'Contemptible' and 'Vile'

Adam Aron says AMC Entertainment has no connection to the tokens and is putting outside securities counsel on the case.

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Robinhood's Stock Tokens: Robinhood's Stock Tokens are tokenized debt securities issued by an offshore affiliate, Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited, providing economic exposure to underlying securities but without granting legal ownership or shareholder rights. AMC CEO Adam Aron called them 'contemptible' and 'vile' because they are not registered under U.S. securities laws and lack company endorsement. They are structured as ERC-20 tokens on Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum Layer 2, enabling 24/7 trading.
FTX's Tokenized Stocks: FTX offered tokenized versions of popular stocks like Tesla and Apple, where the tokens were derivatives of the underlying stock. The controversy intensified with the FTX collapse, as reports suggested these tokens might not have been 1:1 backed by real shares, raising concerns about potential market manipulation and the use of synthetic assets.
Binance's Stock Tokens: Binance launched stock tokens in 2021 for companies like Tesla and Coinbase, but quickly halted them due to regulatory pressure from authorities like the UK's FCA and Germany's BaFin. Regulators questioned their compliance with securities law requirements and the lack of a proper issuance and custody framework, as Binance was not a regulated exchange for securities. Binance has since explored restarting these services.