By the end of this lesson you’ll know what a tokenized stock, loan, house or gold bar actually gives its holder, and what happened in each market when the asset behind the token went wrong.
When a stock token isn’t a stock
30 June to 2 July 2025 · Robinhood’s OpenAI tokens
On 30 June 2025 Robinhood launched stock tokens for its European customers, and gave away tokens tied to two private companies, OpenAI and SpaceX.
Two days later OpenAI posted from its newsroom account: “These ‘OpenAI tokens’ are not OpenAI equity.” “Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval”, it said, and “we did not approve any transfer.”
The token
A contract with Robinhood’s European arm
The share
Still OpenAI’s to approve, and never transferred
What the holder had, and what he didn’t.
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