OpenAI disavows Robinhood’s ‘OpenAI tokens,’ says demo stock was not approved and has no equity backing

OpenAI said connected July 2 that integer tokens trading nether its sanction connected Robinhood’s caller blockchain platform do not correspond OpenAI equity and were listed without the company’s consent.

In a connection posted connected X, the artificial quality developer wrote: 

“These ‘OpenAI tokens’ are not OpenAI equity. We did not spouse with Robinhood, were not progressive successful this, and bash not endorse it. Any transportation of OpenAI equity requires our approval—we did not o.k. immoderate transfer.” 

The institution asked investors to “be careful,” highlighting that immoderate equity question successful the backstage steadfast indispensable beryllium approved by its board.

Tokenized-stock aviator spurs confusion

OpenAI’s remark follows Robinhood’s June 30 lawsuit successful Cannes, France, wherever CEO Vlad Tenev demonstrated a tokenized banal commercialized for an “OpenAI” presumption connected the broker’s forthcoming layer-2 blockchain. 

Robinhood said the network, built with Arbitrum technology, volition fto eligible European users commercialized much than 200 US equities and exchange-traded funds 24/7 with nary commissions oregon spreads. The shares volition beryllium converted into on-chain tokens for transportation and settlement.

The presumption helped propulsion Robinhood’s class-A shares up astir 11% to a grounds $92, extending a month-long rally of astir 34%. 

Market chatter soon began treating the demo plus arsenic de facto OpenAI equity, contempt the institution remaining privately held.

Push for tokenized stocks

Robinhood’s inaugural arrives amid a broader run to displacement accepted equities onto nationalist blockchains.

In precocious June, Dinari won broker-dealer registration for a subsidiary, positioning it to administer its tokenized “dShares” to US brokerages aft completing SEC onboarding. 

The steadfast already issues blockchain-recorded shares to non-US users connected Coinbase’s Base web and states that it volition settee aboriginal trades connected a nationalist concatenation portion routing orders done registered marketplace centers. 

Kraken has meantime launched a 24/7 level for tokenized US stocks, and Coinbase has requested clearance from the SEC to rotation retired a akin service. 

Proponents contend that putting equities on-chain trims clearing fees, shrinks colony times to adjacent real-time, and enables continuous trading.

The station OpenAI disavows Robinhood’s ‘OpenAI tokens,’ says demo banal was not approved and has nary equity backing appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.