Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said the company's stock tokens should not automatically require the underlying issuer's consent, while confirming that token holders receive no voting rights. The comments, made in a CNBC interview, address the structure at the center of Robinhood's dispute with AMC Entertainment over AMC-linked tokens.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev argued that the company's stock tokens should not automatically require the underlying company's consent, while acknowledging that token holders do not receive voting rights in that company. He made the comments in a CNBC "Squawk Box" interview on Wednesday, Sept. 9.
The remarks clarify the structure at the center of Robinhood's dispute with AMC Entertainment: Robinhood is defending a separate security that references AMC stock, not an AMC share placed directly on a blockchain. According to The Defiant: "they don't control other companies issuing their own securities that reference those shares", Tenev said of issuers.
Tenev also acknowledged during the interview that token holders do not receive the voting rights attached to the underlying shares. Asked whether Robinhood would vote those shares, he said the company has not announced plans for the voting aspect.
A debt token, not an AMC share
Robinhood's product documentation identifies Stock Tokens as tokenized debt securities issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited, or RHJ. The products give investors economic exposure to an underlying security but no legal or beneficial rights in or against the company that issued that security.
Robinhood's disclosure names RHJ, rather than AMC, as the issuer of the debt securities. Robinhood says each token in circulation is backed one-for-one by the corresponding stock, with the shares held by a U.S. custodian, and names Alpaca Securities LLC as broker and custodian. Token holders receive dividend economics through a mechanism that reinvests cash distributions into more underlying shares and increases a multiplier applied to the token, but they do not receive legal or beneficial rights in or against AMC.
AMC pushes back
The structure sits at the center of the clash. Tenev argues that a separate entity should be able to issue a security referencing publicly traded shares without automatically obtaining the underlying issuer's consent. AMC CEO Adam Aron argues that the resulting product separates token demand from AMC's capital raising and does not provide shareholder rights.
Aron wrote on X on Sept. 4 that Robinhood's product decouples stock token ownership from a company's ability to control its own capital raising efforts. He called on Robinhood to stop trading AMC-linked tokens and said AMC's securities counsel would examine whether it could force a halt.
Robinhood's documents say the Stock Tokens are unavailable in the U.S. or to U.S. persons. Tenev's answer does not resolve whether AMC has a legal route to stop the product, and it leaves one governance question unanswered: who will direct the votes attached to the AMC shares held in custody.
Source: The Defiant
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