Robinhood Under EU Scrutiny After OpenAI Raises Alarm Over Stock Tokens: Report

Robinhood’s lead European Union regulator, the Bank of Lithuania, sought clarification from the company on Monday over its tokenized equities after OpenAI raised concerns over the product last week.

Lithuania’s central bank has requested more details from Robinhood on the structure of the OpenAI and SpaceX stock tokens, as well as information on how these products were communicated to consumers, according to a report by CNBC.

Robinhood shares were down 1% in midday trading. Retail sentiment on the stock has been ‘extremely bullish’ over the past month, with retail chatter shown as ‘extremely high,’ according to Stocktwits data.

The Bank of Lithuania has been the company’s lead regulator in the EU after it received a brokerage license and crypto asset service provider license from the central bank, CNBC said.

Last week, OpenAI distanced itself from the “OpenAI tokens” launched by Robinhood in Europe. On June 30, the brokerage said it would launch so-called tokenized shares of the Sam Altman-led company, SpaceX, and other private companies.

“These 'OpenAI tokens' are not OpenAI equity. We did not partner with Robinhood, were not involved in this, and do not endorse it,” OpenAI said on X last week.

“Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval—we did not approve any transfer,” the company said before asking people to ‘be careful.’

Robinhood had then said to CNBC that the tokens were intended to provide retail investors with indirect exposure to private markets, facilitated by the trading platform’s ownership stake in a special purpose vehicle (SPV).

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