AMC stock gains 7% as CEO threatens Robinhood over stock tokens

AMC Entertainment shares rose about 7 percent on Friday after Chief Executive Adam Aron threatened legal action against Robinhood Markets over tokenized representations of AMC stock, calling the offering "contemptible" and demanding a halt.

"I find this practice to be contemptible, outrageous, disgusting, detestable, inexcusable, vile," Aron said in a post on X. "How can it possibly be legal?"

The tokens, issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited, are digital representations on a blockchain that track AMC's share price and provide economic exposure without conferring ownership. They are not registered under U.S. securities laws and are restricted in Canada, the U.K., and Switzerland. Aron said the offering creates a "fictitious" synthetic equity market that decouples token ownership from AMC's ability to control its own capital-raising decisions.

Aron publicly called on Robinhood to voluntarily cease and desist trading AMC stock tokens, warning that AMC's securities counsel has been asked to examine whether legal action could force a halt. Robinhood's tokenized stock program covers more than 190 companies, making the dispute a potential test case for the broader tokenized real-world asset market.

Robinhood launched its stock token program in the European Union in June 2025 with private company shares including OpenAI and SpaceX, then expanded globally to more than 120 countries when Robinhood Chain, its Ethereum Layer 2 network built on Arbitrum technology, went live on July 1, 2026. The network launched with 95 tokenized equities, and combined tokenized-stock trading volume through Uniswap on Robinhood Chain reached $1 billion in August, according to Uniswap founder Hayden Adams.

Robinhood Chief Executive Vlad Tenev has called tokenization "the best path to modernizing the American financial system." When Tenev asked Aron directly what his concerns were, Aron responded that the list was "almost existential," pointing to AMC's reliance on real equity issuances to strengthen its balance sheet over the years.

Industry voices have weighed in on both sides. Securitize Chief Executive Carlos Domingo sided with Aron, noting that AMC's tokenized stock was reportedly trading at 60 times the actual AMC share price. "Tokenization was meant to improve markets, not make them worse," Domingo said. LitXchange co-founder Marcel Kalinovic also criticized Robinhood, accusing the firm of operating in legal gray areas.

AMC is not the first company to object. OpenAI rejected Robinhood's tokens linked to its private shares in July 2025, saying it had not partnered with or endorsed the offering. The dispute exposed the same ownership distinction now at the center of AMC's objection: a financial product can track a company's share price without being equity issued or endorsed by that company.

Robinhood's disclosures state that Stock Tokens are tokenized debt securities that give holders economic exposure to a share price without legal or beneficial rights against the underlying company. The base prospectus was approved by Liechtenstein's Financial Market Authority under EU rules, and the Jersey entity "is not regulated," according to Robinhood's issuer page.

AMC has not announced formal legal action. Aron said the company will first ask outside securities counsel to review the tokenized AMC product and the circumstances surrounding its use of the company's name. Investors will be watching whether Robinhood responds to the cease-and-desist request or whether the dispute escalates into litigation that could reshape how tokenized equities are offered globally.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.