Robinhood plans to add one-for-one share redemptions and voting rights to its stock tokens after criticism that holders don't actually own the shares they track. Coinbase is moving in the same direction, while Bitfinex Securities argues the real issue goes beyond issuer consent to what each token legally represents.
Robinhood is working to add share redemptions and voting rights to its stock token offering, CEO Vlad Tenev and crypto head Johann Kerbrat said. The change addresses two sticking points in a growing debate over the brokerage's push to put U.S. equities on blockchain rails.
Tenev posted on X that in-kind redemption and voting are coming for Robinhood Stock Tokens. Kerbrat added more detail, saying the redemptions are being built one-for-one with voting for eligible Stock Token holders on the roadmap, and pointed to the company's Say shareholder engagement platform as infrastructure it could draw on.
AMC dispute exposed the gap
The plans follow AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron's call for Robinhood to stop offering tokens tied to AMC, arguing the company had not approved them and that token holders lacked shareholder rights. That dispute highlighted a distinction in the tokenized stock market: products carrying the same ticker can give investors very different rights depending on their legal structure.
Robinhood's stock tokens are backed one-for-one with real shares held in custody, but they are offered outside the U.S. through a Jersey-domiciled subsidiary and structured as debt instruments. Holders currently get price exposure to the underlying stock but don't own or hold beneficial rights to those shares. Coinbase is also moving to add voting rights to its tokenized stock offerings, CEO Brian Armstrong said, noting its tokenized equities already support one-for-one redemption into underlying shares and incorporate dividends.
Critics say the label itself misleads
Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo, a proponent of issuer-sponsored tokenization, pushed back on Robinhood's structure. According to CoinDesk: "In my opinion, calling these 'stock tokens' is misleading to investors." He argued investors currently lack voting rights and can't redeem the token directly for the underlying share, while Robinhood handles dividends by increasing token holdings rather than paying cash.
Bitfinex Securities frames the debate differently. Its head of operations, Jesse Knutson, told crypto.news that Tenev was directionally correct to reject a blanket issuer veto, but said the real question is what each token represents and who can access it, not whether an issuer must consent. Knutson noted traditional markets already allow unsponsored depositary receipts tied to listed securities, so a third party issuing a product linked to a public stock isn't itself new.
Private-company tokens raise separate risks
Knutson drew a sharper line around tokens tied to private companies, where buyers may not receive the financial information available to existing shareholders. He said unsponsored private-equity tokens carry added information asymmetry, since underlying private investors often have access to financials that token buyers don't. Robinhood faced a related objection from OpenAI in July 2025, when the brokerage offered European customers token exposure linked to OpenAI and SpaceX; OpenAI said the tokens were not its equity and that it had neither partnered with nor endorsed the product.
Knutson also flagged transfer controls and market surveillance as ongoing concerns, since tokens can trade continuously on blockchain venues even when the underlying stock's exchange is closed. Both sponsored and third-party token structures are likely to keep coexisting, he said, leaving investors to determine which model backs the product they buy.
Sources: CoinDesk, crypto.news
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