Tokenized stock offerings for Openai offered Robinhood users in Europe are not officially approved by the company, the AI giant said in a social media post.
“These ‘Openai -Tokens’ are not Openai Equity. We did not cooperate with Robinhood, were not involved in this and did not approve it,” Openai posted on X. “Any transfer of Openai Equity requires our approval – we did not approve any transfer.”
Earlier this week, Robinhood announced that it launched tokenized stock trading based on Arbitlum Blockchain to its users in Europe. As Coindesk reported earlier, users will have access to 200 shares and ETFs as well as a secondary market for equity in hot startups such as Openai and SpaceX.
The idea of tokenized equity in yet public companies is nothing new.
In 2018, a blockchain start -up called Swarm said it would soon offer tokenized shares in startups – including Robinhood.
Coindesk reported at the time that many of the companies SVMEM claimed it would offer equity in the push back and said 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 unclear how source of equity is. There are some speculation that equity represents interest in Openai shares already acquired through authorized channels based on comments from Robinhood’s CEO.
Speculation:
During the presentation, Vlad specifically mentioned to have a relationship with a wealthy investor with Openai / SpaceX shares.
These shares can probably still be under the original investor name (either a person or a device) that Openai already has … https://t.co/bfskadwf5o
– David Hoffman (@trustlessState) July 2, 2025
Others have warned that Openai – and other startups – would be good within their rights not to honor the sale.
This highlights another risk on the private business page that I did not treat yesterday, but we often look at these secondary markets. There is no requirement for these companies to honor the sale of the equity you think you own – in fact I recently said at a private conference that I… https://t.co/nyzhjghxwv
– Rob Hadick ＞ | ＜ (@hadickm) July 2, 2025
“I expect this natural excitement to result in more private companies just canceling capital sales completely for those who violate their shareholders’ agreements,” dragonfly released General Partner Rob Hadick at X.
Robinhood did not respond to a request for comment from Coindesk.
