Robinhood’s stock tokens don’t fit the SEC’s new exemption yet, analysts say

Robinhood’s stock tokens fall short of the SEC’s new five-year innovation exemption, and analysts say the brokerage must rebuild the product rather than relaunch it.

The exemption creates a path for qualifying tokenized U.S. stocks to trade through automated market makers on public blockchains. To qualify, tokens must preserve shareholder rights such as dividends and voting, and venues face limits on trading volume and the number of stocks they can offer.

Robinhood’s current offshore stock tokens provide price exposure to U.S. shares through a derivative without conveying the full ownership rights the exemption requires. According to a September 20 assessment of the tokenized-stock exemption, as reported, analysts at Goldman Sachs and Citizens JMP put Robinhood in the same early-winner group as Coinbase and Circle, but the derivative structure is the gap the company must close.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev signaled this week that share redemptions and voting rights will be added to the stock tokens. Citizens analysts expect the company to move quickly, citing the traction of its tokenized-equity offering outside the United States and its broader push around Robinhood Chain, its Arbitrum-based blockchain.

The same analyst reports pointed to Circle as an indirect beneficiary of the framework, with its USDC stablecoin potentially used for settlement, collateral and other activity around onchain markets.

The structure of the exemption also gives issuing companies a new lever. The SEC framework lets issuers object before third-party tokenized versions of their shares can begin trading, a right that became a flashpoint this month when AMC Entertainment’s chief executive criticized Robinhood for offering AMC-linked stock tokens without the company’s approval.

Robinhood has not said whether it will build a compliant U.S. version of the product, and voting rights remain a stated plan rather than a shipped feature.