Robinhood has refused AMC Entertainment’s demand to stop trading blockchain tokens that track the cinema chain’s stock, escalating a fight that tests whether a public company has any say over a third party tokenizing its shares. AMC chief executive Adam Aron called the products “contemptible and outrageous” and threatened to take the matter to the SEC, while Robinhood’s legal team told him to send his lawyers.The dispute started on September 3, when Aron discovered Robinhood was listing a tokenized version of AMC on its offshore blockchain platform, one of more than 190 stock tokens on the network. “We have no connection to this at all, and do not condone it in any way,” he wrote on X, promising to engage outside securities counsel. By September 4 he had escalated from criticism to a formal demand.
A three-word reply and a legal threat
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev responded with a terse “What’s the concern?” Aron’s answer ran long. He argued that AMC spends millions each year complying with US securities law while Robinhood issues the tokens through Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited, a Channel Islands affiliate, roughly 3,000 miles offshore.
“In good conscience, how can Robinhood as a U.S. company set up an operation in far offshore Jersey, an island 3000 miles away, and market a security sort of posing as AMC in some shape or fashion, and not comply with U.S. securities laws,” Aron wrote.
He called on Robinhood to cease and desist, adding that AMC would raise the matter with the US Securities and Exchange Commission if the platform did not act voluntarily. Robinhood chief legal officer Dan Gallagher replied on X: “We know a little something about the U.S. securities laws and will not ‘DECIST.’ Send your lawyers and we’ll educate them.”
How the tokens actually work
Robinhood’s own disclosures say the tokens give holders price exposure to a stock but no legal ownership, no voting rights and no shareholder protections. They are not registered under US securities law and cannot be sold to US persons. The company launched its blockchain on July 1 and added 100 stock tokens in a single batch on August 13, according to Yahoo Finance.The scale of the business explains why the fight matters beyond one movie theater chain. Robinhood Chain generated more than $3.8 million in network revenue on September 1 alone, ranking first among all blockchain networks globally at that moment, per Investing.com market data.AMC’s objections go beyond branding. Aron argued a synthetic market decouples token demand from demand for the real shares, which matters for a company that used its elevated meme-stock-era share price to issue equity and pay down debt that had pushed it toward bankruptcy. Token buyers generate no issuance proceeds for AMC.AMC shares gained more than 4 percent on the news, while Robinhood slipped about 2 percent.
Industry weighs in
Tokenization executives split over who is right. According to CoinDesk, Ondo Finance’s Nathan Allman said Aron’s concern about capital formation had “real substance,” noting that buying a token does not necessarily create buying pressure in the underlying stock. He also flagged the redemption structure: retail investors cannot redeem tokens directly for shares, a process reserved for authorized participants. “If the holder is not on AMC’s official ownership record, the token is not an AMC share,” Allman wrote.Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo pointed to a price dislocation, with one AMC token trading pair at roughly 60 times the reference share price, a sign of how thin some token markets are.Lawyers quoted by Decrypt question AMC’s grounds for a securities-law challenge, since the tokens are not offered to US persons, but noted the branding and marketing could leave room for a trademark-adjacent dispute.
Not the first pushback
Robinhood has been here before. OpenAI publicly disavowed Robinhood tokens tied to its private shares last year, saying it had neither partnered with nor endorsed the offering. That fight involved a private company with no direct market to defend. AMC is the first listed company to push back this hard, and the first with an issuer’s standing to complain about dilution of its own capital raising.A spokesperson summed up Robinhood’s position: “We stand firmly behind our Stock Tokens and their ability to provide international exposure to US equities, modernize the financial system and expand opportunities for ownership globally.”Tokenized equities have become one of crypto’s fastest-growing products this year, trading around the clock while traditional markets sleep. Whether issuers like AMC can force delistings, or whether an SEC complaint gains traction against products sold only offshore, will shape how far that market can grow. For now, both sides are digging in.
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