Robinhood, a well-known trading platform, announced a new product - tokenized versions of stocks from private companies, generating interest and questions among users.
Robinhood's Products and Features
Last week, Vlad Tenev unveiled tokens allowing retail users to 'get exposure' to companies like OpenAI and SpaceX. These tokens promise to reflect dividends and stock splits, but they are not actual shares, rather a synthetic exposure created using blockchain.
Issues with Tokenized Stocks
According to Ripple’s CTO, David Schwartz, these tokens are designed to mimic actual stock behavior, including splits and dividends, but do not come with ownership rights, voting rights, or legal stake. 'Robinhood promises that the token will perform very similarly to the underlying stock... If they fail to deliver, you can sue them,' Schwartz pointed out.
Market Reaction and User Feedback
Despite the existing issues, Robinhood reported being flooded with requests from other private companies wanting to offer their shares in tokenized form. This model allows bypassing traditional barriers like accredited investor status, granting retail users access to Silicon Valley heavyweights.
The launch of tokenized stocks by Robinhood raises numerous questions about the legality and real significance of such tokens for users, offering them only synthetic access to private companies.
