OpenAI Blasts Robinhood for Selling OpenAI Tokens

On Monday, Robinhood, the stock, options, and crypto trading platform, announced it was making tokenized shares of OpenAI and SpaceX available to users in Europe.

Robinhood said users in the European Union who onboard to trade stock tokens by July 7 will receive 5 euros worth of OpenAI and SpaceX tokens. CNBC reports that the company is offering $1 million worth of OpenAI and $500,000 worth of SpaceX.

The news sent Robinhood’s shares up nearly 13%, hitting a new all-time high for the company.

That’s all well and good for Robinhood, but OpenAI was not so pleased, and tweeted a response that leaves no doubt about how they feel about it: “These ‘OpenAI tokens’ are not OpenAI equity. We did not partner with Robinhood, were not involved in this, and do not endorse it. Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval—we did not approve any transfer. Please be careful.”

These “OpenAI tokens” are not OpenAI equity. We did not partner with Robinhood, were not involved in this, and do not endorse it. Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval—we did not approve any transfer.

Please be careful.

— OpenAI Newsroom (@OpenAINewsroom) July 2, 2025

When reached for comment, Robinhood spokesperson Rouky Diallo explained to TechCrunch that the OpenAI tokens giveaway is part of a campaign to give investors indirect exposure to OpenAI “through Robinhood’s ownership stake in a special purpose vehicle.” (A special purpose vehicle, or SPV, is a subsidiary created by a parent company to isolate financial risk, per Investopedia.)

Related: Robinhood Strategies Could Be a Game-Changer for Young Investors

TechCrunch says that the token release “suggests Robinhood owns shares of an SPV that controls a certain number of OpenAI’s shares.” Meaning they are offering ownership of the vehicle that owns OpenAI shares, not direct OpenAI shares.

Robinhood’s help center further explains: “When buying stock tokens, you are not buying the actual stocks — you are buying tokenized contracts that follow their price, recorded on a blockchain. You can buy, sell, or hold stock tokens — but you cannot send them to other wallets or platforms at this time.”

If that’s confusing to you, perhaps this isn’t the investment opportunity for you. And if it makes sense, you might be part-robot.