Robinhood Rejects AMC CEO Demand to Halt Stock Token

Robinhood refused AMC CEO Adam Aron’s demand to halt trading of an AMC-linked Stock Token and said the product provides economic exposure without conferring legal or beneficial ownership of AMC shares.

Robinhood’s chief legal officer, Dan Gallagher, replied to Aron’s request by echoing the misspelled word “DECIST” and telling AMC to send its lawyers. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev wrote that the firm “stand[s] behind Stock Tokens.” Aron had written that AMC has no connection to the token, that outside securities counsel would review it, and that the company would take the matter to the Securities and Exchange Commission. He listed objections including the risk of blurring the line between economic exposure and share ownership, separating trading activity from AMC’s capital-raising process, and denying token holders the rights attached to AMC shares. Robinhood described Aron’s claims as allegations.

Company documents describe the instrument as a Stock Token issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited, known as RHJ. The prospectus calls the tokens tokenized debt securities designed to mirror the economics of a referenced stock or exchange-traded fund. Under the product terms, token holders are creditors of RHJ and do not hold legal or beneficial interest in the referenced company.

The prospectus specifies that token holders have no rights to vote, attend shareholder meetings, exercise pre-emption rights or claim direct dividend payments from AMC. Dividends and stock splits are reflected through the product’s mechanics, which the documentation says can include an on-chain multiplier.

The offering documents also state that the Stock Tokens are unregistered under U.S. securities laws and may not be offered, sold or delivered in the United States or to U.S. persons. Robinhood issues the product through its Jersey entity for eligible customers outside those distribution boundaries. Robinhood’s asset registry listed the AMC-linked token as active when accessed on Sept. 4.

At present the dispute is a private legal and public-relations standoff: AMC’s CEO has demanded removal and threatened SEC involvement, while Robinhood has refused to withdraw the product. There is no public record of a regulator making a determination about the AMC-linked token.

AMC was a central company in the 2021 retail trading episode when Robinhood temporarily restricted purchases of several volatile stocks on Jan. 28, 2021; that episode was later examined by regulators. The current disagreement concerns whether Robinhood may offer a separate debt instrument that tracks AMC’s economics while leaving shareholder rights with AMC’s registered shareholders.