OpenAI Warns That Tokenized Equity Sale on Robinhood Is Unauthorized

Tokenized equity offerings for OpenAI being offered to Robinhood users in Europe are not officially authorized by the company, the AI giant said in a social media post.

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

Earlier this week, Robinhood announced it was launching tokenized stock trading based on the Arbitrum blockchain to its users in Europe. As CoinDesk reported earlier, users will have access to 200 equities and ETFs, as well as a secondary market for equity in hot startups like OpenAI and SpaceX.

The idea of tokenized equity in not-yet public companies is nothing new.

In 2018, a blockchain startup called Swarm said it would soon be offering tokenized shares in startups — including Robinhood.

CoinDesk reported at the time that many of the companies Swarm claimed it would be offering equity in pushed back and said such a sale would be unauthorized but Swarm said everything came from "approved secondary market transactions."

Looking at Robinhood's current tokenized offering, it's unclear where the source of equity is. There is some speculation that the equity represents interest in OpenAI shares that have been already acquired via authorized channels, based on comments made by Robinhood's CEO.

Others have warned that OpenAI — and other startups — would be well within their rights not to honor the sale.

"I expect this natural tension to result in more private companies just cancelling equity sales altogether for those who violate their shareholders' agreements," Dragonfly General Partner Rob Hadick posted on X.

Robinhood did not respond to a request for comment from CoinDesk.