OpenAI issued an announcement on Wednesday clarifying that OpenAI tokens distributed to European Union customers by the buying and selling platform Robinhood do not signify equity in the company.
“We are not concerned in this and do not endorse it,” representatives of the company wrote on social media. “Any switch of OpenAI equity requires our approval — we did not approve any switch. Please watch out.”
Robinhood distributed $5 value of OpenAI and SpaceX tokens to shoppers in the EU area on Monday as a part of the company’s push into tokenized inventory buying and selling, which included launching a layer-2 blockchain community to settle tokenized equity trades.
In an announcement to Cointelegraph, representatives for Robinhood stated the token giveaways have been restricted to “eligible European prospects.”
“These tokens give retail buyers oblique publicity to non-public markets, opening up entry, and are enabled by Robinhood’s possession stake in a particular function automobile.”
SpaceX and OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk took the alternative to criticize OpenAI’s company construction. “Your ‘equity’ is faux,” Musk stated in a X submit.
Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018 and has since been outspoken about what he sees as a departure from the nonprofit, mission-driven mannequin towards a profit-first mannequin. He has filed lawsuits accusing OpenAI of breaching its constitution and diverting charitable belongings for personal acquire.
Robinhood declares tokenized real-world asset buying and selling
Robinhood first tipped plans to introduce tokenized inventory buying and selling for European prospects in Might 2025. No date or timeline has been given for a US rollout.
Talking at Consensus 2025 in Toronto, Canada, senior vp and common supervisor of Robinhood Crypto Johann Kerbrat stated that the integration of tokenized real-world belongings on the platform promotes monetary inclusion.
The company’s foray into tokenized equities comes amid a broader effort by crypto exchanges to combine tokenized shares, authorities securities, company bonds and different conventional belongings into their platforms, blurring the line between conventional and digital finance.
Robinhood argues that tokenization opens up beforehand inaccessible asset lessons like personal equity, personal credit score, and business actual property investing to the common public via the magic of asset fractionalization.
Personal equity and personal credit score are sometimes reserved for accredited buyers who’ve $1 million or extra in investible belongings or meet the annual revenue and licensing necessities of accreditation below EU and US laws, making them largely inaccessible to common retail buyers.
The company introduced the rollout of its layer-2 blockchain community and tokenized real-world asset buying and selling throughout the company’s occasion in Cannes, France on Monday.
“Crypto is rather more than a speculative asset, it has the potential to change into the spine of the world monetary system,” CEO and co-founder Vlad Tenev stated.
