- AMC’s CEO Aron is furious over Robinhood’s creation of an independent AMC tokenized stock.
- Robinhood CEO insists his firm has done no wrong under the ERC-20 token protocol.
- An unrelated meme coin, MEME, benefited from the public debate and surged 3,100X.
AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron has criticized Robinhood over its handling of the AMC Token, a tokenized stock, blockchain-based financial product that tracks the price of AMC Entertainment stock. In his latest post on X, Aron highlighted concerns, including Robinhood’s decision to operate offshore and avoid complying with US securities laws.
Aron compared Robinhood’s AMC token with his company’s past equity issuance, which he said was vital to their success and balance sheet strengthening. According to him, the product from Robinhood is a fictitious synthetic equity that decouples stock token ownership from his company’s ability to control its capital-raising efforts.
Robinhood’s CEO Responds to AMC Exec’s Backlash
The AMC Theatres executive called on Robinhood to voluntarily stop trading AMC stock tokens, accusing the firm of creating a quasi-fake market and sowing public distrust in financial markets. He promised to petition the SEC over the issue to ascertain the regulator’s stand.
Despite the backlash from Aron, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has defended the feature, maintaining that the ERC-20 tokens are backed one-for-one by real shares held with a US custodian and operate transparently around the clock. He wondered what Aron’s concern was. Meanwhile, AMC shares reacted to the ongoing debate with a roughly 20% rally in premarket trading.
MEME Benefits From Unrelated Debate
The ongoing debate reportedly triggered a secondary event in Robinhood’s ecosystem as community members interpreted AMC as “A Meme Coin,” leading to a buying spree for MEME on Robinhood Chain. The digital asset surged more than 3,100-fold in a single day, lifting its market value above $60 million.
Besides Tenev’s response to Aron, Robinhood has not issued a separate response to Aron’s criticism as of writing. The AMC token is one of over 190 tokenized stocks launched by Robinhood, which Aron said are independent of the native companies and are not registered under US securities laws.
Related: Bitget Wallet Integrates Robinhood Chain to Bring Tokenized Stock Trading Onchain
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