AMC CEO Criticizes Robinhood’s Stock Tokenization as Meme Coins Surge

Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Wenser (@wenser 2010 )

Meme coin trading volumes on the Robinhood platform continue to surge, alongside stock tokens, drawing sharp criticism from traditional finance.

On the early morning of September 4, Robinhood officially posted that "on-chain stock token DEX trading volume surpassed $3 billion within 63 days, covering over 190 publicly traded companies including AMC"; shortly afterward, AMC CEO Adam Aron suddenly condemned, stating that "AMC Corporation has no relation whatsoever to the associated stock tokens," and denounced Robinhood's actions as "despicable, abhorrent, revolting, disgraceful, unforgivable, and utterly evil," emphasizing that "AMC is completely uninvolved and will not condone such behavior in any form whatsoever."

Ironically, shortly after the statement was made, a Robinhood-based on-chain meme coin named MEME (A Meme Coin) surged rapidly, with its market cap briefly exceeding $150 million. Moreover, fueled by this turmoil, AMC’s common stock also skyrocketed, climbing over 20% in pre-market after-hours trading. What many had long envisioned—the idea of an on-chain meme coin boosting the price of its corresponding traditional stock—was realized in a highly dramatic and controversial manner.

On one hand, Robinhood’s on-chain stock tokens and meme coins once again confirm that “attention economy is the primary growth driver”; on the other hand, the surge in AMC’s underlying stock price, driven by controversy surrounding meme coins and stock tokens, lays bare the potential regulatory risks and innovation barriers in the current stock tokenization landscape.

In this race for crypto innovation, regulatory rules and traditional forces are always lagging behind—and this is a key driver behind Robinhood’s on-chain ecosystem transformation of RWA assets and Meme coin mechanics.

The story begins with Robinhood Chain, which officially launched in July this year.

As Robinhood’s proprietary L2 network, Robinhood Chain was originally positioned as a dedicated blockchain network for RWA and tokenized stocks, featuring a series of stock tokens issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited. These tokenized debt securities provide exposure to underlying U.S. equities (including AMC) through price tracking, without granting holders actual equity, voting rights, or any other shareholder rights. It is particularly important to note that the on-chain stock tokens on Robinhood Chain have a specific scope of applicability:

• Available to eligible users outside the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, covering over 120 countries.
• Not registered under U.S. securities laws; strictly restricted from sale to U.S. persons.
• The official documentation emphasizes that this asset is a derivative-type asset, with risks including potential total loss.

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Products are not registered in the United States, among other risk disclosures.

If the launch of Robinhood Chain and the quiet rollout of numerous publicly traded company tokens marked the beginning of Robinhood’s stock tokenization transformation, then the recent surge in trading volume—driven by the growing popularity of meme coins, stock token trading, and stock-meme coin pairings—has revealed even greater potential to Robinhood: transforming global capital markets through on-chain stock tokens, enabling everyone to access all capital, assets, and liquidity on the Robinhood platform and Robinhood Chain. At that point, Robinhood will become not only the “first stop” but also the “only stop” for countless people around the world.

It’s no surprise that Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev made bold statements today, saying he “hopes to accompany customers throughout their entire financial lifecycle.” His exact words were: “Robinhood began by serving a new generation of first-time investors. Today, these customers are building wealth, and their financial needs are growing accordingly. Just weeks after launching Trust Accounts, customers have deposited over $150 million in assets, with an average account balance of around $500,000. We aim to accompany and serve them throughout their entire financial lifecycle.”

However, it is clear that while Robinhood may have opened a convenient door for users to invest in and trade publicly listed company stocks, it does not represent the interests of all publicly listed companies—especially one that has long been known as a “meme stock” and has longstanding grievances with Robinhood.

The "war" behind AMC and Robinhood: The 2021 "Meme stock pull-the-plug" and the 2023 "false bankruptcy alert" controversy

As one of the largest chain cinema operators globally, this U.S.-based publicly traded company has had a difficult time in recent years.

AMC was originally established in 1920 and, after nearly a century of development, successfully listed on the NYSE in 2013, becoming a legitimate U.S. publicly traded company. In 2016, current CEO Adam Aron took office and rapidly expanded through a series of acquisitions, at one point becoming one of the largest cinema chains in the United States and globally.

But the seemingly rapid growth of the entertainment industry cannot hide its underlying fragile business structure. It is understood that AMC’s primary business model heavily relies on cinema box office revenue shares and high-margin snack and beverage sales, while its membership loyalty program has also faced significant scrutiny—leading the company to nearly go bankrupt during the pandemic, with debt peaking at over $4 billion afterward. However, through a series of financing and strategic maneuvers led by CEO Adam Aron, AMC managed to overcome these challenges and reach today. Key elements of this turnaround, beyond the Taylor Swift concert film and popcorn bucket marketing, also relied heavily on strong support from meme stock retail investors.

And this is precisely the source of the resentment between AMC and Robinhood.

In 2021, stocks such as GameStop and AMC were pushed up by retail investors on the Reddit WallStreetBets forum, triggering a short squeeze. Faced with a liquidity crisis, Robinhood, as an online brokerage platform, took drastic action—cutting off trading entirely by restricting multiple stocks including AMC and GME to “Position Closing Only” (PCO), leaving countless retail investors unable to buy but only able to sell their holdings. As a result, AMC’s stock price plunged by over 50–60% that day. Adam Aron, who was highly active on social media, expressed strong dissatisfaction but was powerless to act. This incident gave rise to the tension between AMC and Robinhood.

In 2023, the Robinhood app briefly displayed an error banner stating that AMC had "filed for bankruptcy," accompanied by the explanation that "the company's funds were about to run out or it was unable to repay its debts." Although Robinhood later clarified the incident as a "technical issue" that lasted only minutes, Aron, AMC's CEO, did not let it go unchallenged—he directly condemned Robinhood's actions on X as "absurd, incorrect, and irresponsible." Although this "false bankruptcy alert" did not negatively impact AMC's stock price, it further reinforced the negative perception of Robinhood among Aron and AMC's retail investors.

Then came today’s headline: “AMC CEO Denounces Robinhood’s Stock Tokenization as Nasty and Despicable, Clarifying That AMC Has Nothing to Do with Robinhood’s On-Chain Stock Tokens.”

If the scene of the AMC CEO lashing out at Robinhood was merely traditional finance figures criticizing stock tokenization platforms, then Robinhood CEO Vlad’s response truly brought this grand clash between crypto innovation and traditional finance to its climax.

After Adam Aron questioned and expressed dissatisfaction over Robinhood’s tokenization of AMC stock without permission, Robinhood CEO Vlad waited a long time before finally responding with: “What’s there to worry about?” His tone showed no regard for Aron’s threats or statements.

And so, Robinhood's on-chain meme coin began its performance, riding the wave of热度 from the public exchange between the AMC CEO and the Robinhood CEO.

The meme coin MEME, related to AMC stock, quickly surpassed its market cap, reaching over $60 million by 2 p.m., with a daily gain of more than 3,100x;

At 2:30 PM, Aron posted again in response to the Robinhood CEO, stating that concerns over Robinhood’s stock token were “almost existential for the company.” He said it was “shocking and disgraceful” that Robinhood offered AMC stock tokens through a Jersey-based structure without operating under the traditional U.S. securities legal framework. He argued that this synthetic stock market decouples token holders from AMC’s own fundraising capabilities, and that stock tokens do not grant investors rights typically associated with traditional shares, such as voting rights, potentially further eroding public trust in financial markets. Finally, Aron urged Vlad Tenev and Robinhood to voluntarily halt trading of AMC stock tokens, noting that AMC has engaged external securities counsel to explore legal avenues to compel Robinhood to cease these activities, and plans to seek a response from the U.S. SEC.

Affected by this news, the MEME market cap surged rapidly, surpassing $120 million before 3 p.m.; around 3:12 p.m., it briefly exceeded $150 million, with its intraday gain reaching an astonishing 6,500 times.

Additionally, meme coins such as CONCERN mentioned by Vlad, CINEMA related to AMC, and GME (Greatest Meme Ever) associated with GameStop have also appeared on the Robinhood chain, with market caps reaching millions of dollars at their peak.

Five years ago, during the “meme stock trading battle” led by GameStop and AMC, Robinhood leveraged its position as an internet brokerage and U.S. stock trading platform to win a round by cutting off access. Today, five years later, Robinhood has won another round by capitalizing on the Meme coin ecosystem on the Robinhood chain and the current regulatory gray area. Timing and fate dictate that while AMC may be the king of entertainment and film, in the realm of capital and trading, it is merely one of hundreds of tokenized stocks.

Certainly, the focused attention still has a clear uplifting effect on AMC stock. In the afternoon, AMC Entertainment (AMC) shares surged as much as 20.87% in pre-market trading, reaching $3.07. As of writing, AMC is trading at $2.76 in pre-market, with a 24-hour gain of 4.55%.

In this dispute between the AMC CEO and the Robinhood CEO over the implementation, legitimacy, and legality of stock tokenization, a new round of factional alignments and positional stances has begun.

In the afternoon, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire posted on X: “More than 1% of CRCL’s shares are held in the form of tokenized stock, amounting to over $2.8 billion—the highest such percentage among all public companies worldwide. In what year will the ‘flip’ (Odaily Star Daily note: referring to tokenized stock surpassing traditional equity ownership) occur?”

Although regulatory bodies such as the U.S. SEC have not yet clearly defined the regulatory boundaries for stock tokenization, the growing trading volume of tokenized stocks on Robinhood and the fact that pre-market pricing for U.S. stocks is increasingly occurring on chain-based platforms like Hyperliquid clearly indicate that stock tokenization is an inevitable trend.

Whether it wins public support may depend on whether this wave of stock tokenization can truly benefit retail and individual investors, enabling more people to participate in investing in high-quality assets like U.S. stocks through on-chain tokens.

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