OpenAI to Robinhood: That’s not our stock, bro

Tech

OpenAI to Robinhood: Thats not our stock, bro

AI giant OpenAI has taken to X to remind an excited crypto community that Robinhood‘s much-hyped “stock tokens” don’t represent equity in the business.

The post clarifies that Robinhood isnt working in partnership with OpenAI, and the tokens are not endorsed, insisting that “we did not approve any transfer” of equity.

These “OpenAI tokens” are not OpenAI equity. We did not partner with Robinhood, were not involved in this, and do not endorse it. Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval—we did not approve any transfer.

Please be careful.

— OpenAI Newsroom (@OpenAINewsroom) July 2, 2025

Announced at the Ethereum Community Conference in Cannes this week, “stock tokens” give users access to tokenized versions of well-known stocks, as well as “shares” in private companies, OpenAI and SpaceX.

The tokens are currently deployed on Ethereum L2 Arbitrum, though Robinhood has plans to launch its own purpose-built blockchain in the future.

Observing the on-chain roll-out of the tokens, Coinbase‘s Conor Grogan observed the deployer’s credentials as a true crypto-native degen.

The Robinhood wallet that transferred the OpenAI tokens was funded by someone who lost $15k on Hyperliquid and minted a “Desperate Ape Wife” NFT for $500 in 2021 pic.twitter.com/sdIHwNz6PQ

— Conor (@jconorgrogan) July 1, 2025

Tom Schmidt, of crypto-focused venture fund Dragonfly, dug into the small print behind the tokens, pointing out that it‘s “pretty clear that you’re buying a *derivative* that is *not* redeemable for the underlying and not backed 1:1”.

He also shot down comparisons to special-purpose vehicles in traditional finance, saying, “SPVs at least own the stock lol.”

Crypto Twitters response was typically tongue-in-cheek

Robinhoods offering was likened by one X user to a scene from the film , in which Steve Carells character wrangles his way through an explanation of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs).

In a reply to their own post, they appear to argue for simplicity in crypto, stating “fartcoin fixes this.”

“we're selling shares of private companies that don't actually represent any real equity or ownership to retail investors…they don't know the difference” pic.twitter.com/805AAWjxW8

— Dip Wheeler (@DipWheeler) July 3, 2025

The legitimacy of the offering was put under even further scrutiny via a sartorial analysis of Robinhood‘s CEO, Vlad Tenev, with one user commenting that the combination of “pinstripe and the ascot [was] giving ’80s cocaine villain vibes.”

It appears that suit-related controversies are cryptos hot topic this week.

Not wanting to pass up an opportunity to get in a dig at OpenAI, Elon Musk replied, “your ‘equity’ is fake,” likely referencing their feud over the companys flip-flopping on its status as a non- or for-profit company.

Musk, however, didn‘t comment on Robinhood’s “stock token” version of his own company, SpaceX.

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