OpenAI has publicly disagreed with Robinhood’s claim that it provides access to its equity via blockchain tokens, calling the product unauthorized and misleading. This disagreement shows the conflict between the technology and finance industries.
OpenAI has clearly said that the “OpenAI tokens” offered by Robinhood in the European Union do not mean you own any part of the company. They highlighted on social media that these tokens are not connected to OpenAI and advised investors to be careful.
Robinhood advertised these tokens to help everyday investors reach private markets that were hard to access before. The company said that the tokens are connected to contracts related to its ownership in a special purpose vehicle (SPV), which owns shares in companies such as OpenAI and SpaceX. However, investors are not directly owning equity, as the tokens show a value that comes from something else instead of direct ownership.
People quickly reacted negatively to Robinhood’s claims. Elon Musk, who helped start both OpenAI and SpaceX, called the claims “fake.” Meanwhile, experts in the industry expressed worries about the legal and ethical issues of selling synthetic exposure to private assets. Other startups like Figure AI have taken legal steps to stop similar unauthorized token sales.
