Tokenized equity offers for OpenAi offered to Robinhood users in Europe are not officially authorized by the company, said the AI giant in an article on social networks.
“These” open tokens “are not OPENAI equity. We have not associated ourselves with Robinhood, we were not involved in this and do not approve it,” said OPENAI on X. “Any transfer of OPENAI equity requires our approval – we have approved any transfer.”
Earlier this week, Robinhood announced that he was launching the trading of tokenized actions according to the arbitrum blockchain to its users in Europe. As Coindesk previously reported, users will have access to 200 shares and ETF, as well as a secondary market for actions in hot startups like Openai and SpaceX.
The idea of equity tokenized in public enterprises not yet is not new.
In 2018, a blockchain startup called Swarm said it would soon offer token actions in startups – including Robinhood.
Coindesk reported at the time that many Swarm companies said it would offer equity by postponing and said that such a sale would be unauthorized, but Swarm said everything came from “approved secondary market transactions”.
Looking at Robinhood’s current tokenized offer, it is not clear where the source of equity is located. There are speculations according to which equity represents interest in OPENAI actions which have already been acquired via authorized channels, based on the comments formulated by the CEO of Robinhood.
Speculation:
During the presentation, VLAD specifically mentioned having a relationship with a rich investor with OPENAI / SpaceX actions.
These actions could probably still be under the original name of investors (either an individual, or an entity), who already has … https://t.co/bfskadwf5o
– David Hoffman (@trustlessstate) July 2, 2025
Others have warned that Openai – and other startups – would be in their rights not to honor the sale.
This highlights another risk on the side of the private enterprise that I did not address yesterday, but we often see in these secondary markets. There is no obligation for these companies to honor the sale of equity that you think you have – in fact, I said recently at a private conference that I …//t.co/nyzhjfg
– Rob Hadick ＞ | ＜ (@hadickm) July 2, 2025
“I expect this natural tension to cause more private companies to cancel only sales in action for those who violate their shareholders’ agreements,” said Dragonfly Rob Hadick’s general partner on X.
Robinhood did not respond to a request for comments from Coindesk.
