Original｜Odaily Planet Daily（@OdailyChina）
Author｜Wenser（@wenser 2010 ）
The market for meme coins and stock tokens on the Robinhood platform has seen a continuous surge in trading volume, accompanied by strong criticism from traditional financial circles.
In the early hours of September 4, Robinhood officially announced that "the on-chain stock token DEX trading volume has exceeded $3 billion within 63 days, covering over 190 listed companies, including AMC"; subsequently, AMC CEO Adam Aronsuddenly attacked, pointing out that "AMC has nothing to do with the related stock tokens," condemning Robinhood's actions as "despicable, shameless, outrageous, ignoble, unforgivable, and extremely evil," and emphasized that "it has nothing to do with this matter and will never condone such behavior in any form."
Paradoxically, following the statement, a Robinhood on-chain meme coin named MEME (A Meme Coin) quickly surged, with its market capitalization exceeding $150 million as Robinhood's CEO and AMC's CEO engaged in a back-and-forthfeud. Furthermore, in light of this incident, AMC's stock price also skyrocketed, with pre-market gains exceeding 20% at one point. The "on-chain meme coin feeding back to the stock price" that countless people previously envisioned has been realized in such a dramatic and controversial way.
On one hand, Robinhood's on-chain stock token meme coin reconfirms the fact that "attention economy is the primary growth driver"; on the other hand, AMC's stock price soaring amidst the controversial prices of meme coins and stock tokens highlights the potential regulatory risks and innovation barriers in the current entry of stock tokenization.
In this race of cryptocurrency innovation, regulatory rules and conservative forces are always a step behind, which is also a significant driving force for Robinhood's on-chain ecological transformation of RWA assets and meme coin gameplay.
The Controversy of AMC Stock Meme: When Robinhood Flexes Muscles Meets AMC CEO Refusing to be "Represented"
The story begins with the launch of Robinhood Chain in July this year.
As Robinhood's proprietary L2 network, Robinhood Chain was originally positioned as an exclusive blockchain network for RWA and tokenized stocks, hosting a series of stock tokens issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited, which provide exposure to the underlying US stocks (including AMC) in the form of price tracking but do not grant holders actual equity, voting rights, or other shareholder rights. It is particularly important to note that the on-chain stock tokens of Robinhood Chain have specific applicable scopes:
- Targeted at eligible users outside of the US, Canada, UK, and Switzerland, currently covering over 120 countries.
- Not registered under US securities laws, explicitly restricting sales to Americans.
- Official documentation emphasizes that these assets are of a derivative nature, with risks including potential total loss.
Document login interface prompts
Risk statements regarding products not being registered in the US
If the launch of Robinhood Chain and the quiet introduction of many stock tokens marked the beginning of the "Robinhood System of Stock Tokenization," then the recent surge in trading volume accompanying the popularity of meme coins, stock tokens, and stock meme coin pairing gameplay has shown Robinhood a greater possibility—to transform the global capital financial market using on-chain stock tokens, allowing everyone to access all capital, assets, and liquidity on the Robinhood platform and Robinhood Chain. When that day comes, Robinhood will become the "first station" and "only station" for countless people around the world.
No wonder Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev recently declared that "he hopes to accompany a new generation of investors throughout their entire financial lifecycle." His original words were: "Robinhood originally started by serving the first-time investors of the new generation. Today, this group of clients is continuously accumulating wealth, and their financial needs are increasing accordingly. Just a few weeks after introducing Trust Accounts, the asset scale deposited by clients has exceeded $150 million, with an average account asset size of about $500,000. We hope to accompany and serve them throughout their financial lifecycle."
However, it is clear that while Robinhood may have opened the "convenient door" for users to invest and trade listed company stock assets, it cannot represent the interests of all listed companies, especially one that has always presented itself as a "meme stock" and has a long-standing grudge against Robinhood.
The "War" Behind AMC and Robinhood: The "Meme Stock Disconnect" of 2021 and the "False Bankruptcy Notification Incident" of 2023
As one of the largest cinema chain operators in the world, this listed company headquartered in Kansas, USA has not had a good business in recent years.
AMC was originally established in 1920, and after nearly a century of development, it finally jumped to the next level, successfully listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2013, becoming a legitimate American publicly traded company. In 2016, the current CEO Adam Aron took office, quickly expanding through a series of mergers and acquisitions, at one point becoming one of the largest cinema chain brands in the US and even the world.
However, the seemingly fast-developing entertainment industry cannot disguise its fragile business structure. It is understood that AMC's main business model heavily relies on box office revenue sharing and the high-profit sale of snacks/drinks, and the loyalty program has come under scrutiny, leading it to the brink of bankruptcy during the pandemic, with debt exceeding $4 billion afterward. Nonetheless, later, CEO Adam Aron managed to steer AMC through tough times through financing and other operations, reaching today's position, and key strategies included not only Taylor Swift concert films and popcorn bucket marketing but also the powerful support of meme stock retail investors.
This was the origin of the grudge between AMC and Robinhood.
In 2021, stocks like GameStop and AMC were pushed up by retail investors on the Reddit WallStreetBets forum, triggering a short squeeze. Facing a liquidity crisis, Robinhood, as an internet brokerage platform, had to quickly pull the plug—setting AMC, GME, and several other stocks to "Position Closing Only (PCO)," leaving countless retail investors unable to buy but only sell the stocks in their accounts. As a result, AMC's stock price plummeted over 50%-60% that day, and Adam Aron, who was very active on social media, expressed strong dissatisfaction, but was helpless; thus, the sordid relationship between AMC and Robinhood was born.
In 2023, the Robinhood App briefly displayed an erroneous banner stating that AMC had "filed for bankruptcy," accompanied by an explanation that "the company's funds were running out or unable to repay debts." Although Robinhood later explained this incident as a "technical issue" lasting only a few minutes, Aron, as the CEO of AMC, would not sit idly by, directly criticizing Robinhood's actions on X as “absurd, erroneous, and irresponsible.” While this "false bankruptcy notification incident" did not negatively impact AMC's stock price, it reinforced Aron and the meme stock retail investors' negative perceptions of Robinhood.
Then, we arrived at today's news headlines of "AMC CEO angrily criticizing Robinhood's disgusting and despicable stock tokenization practices," clarifying "AMC has nothing to do with Robinhood on-chain stock tokens."
Response from Robinhood CEO Reveals the Hot Drama of Robinhood On-chain Meme Coins
If AMC CEO angrily criticizing Robinhood was just an attack from traditional financial industry figures against stock tokenization platforms, then Robinhood CEO Vlad's response truly propelled the "clash of crypto innovation with traditional finance" drama to its climax.
After Adam Aron questioned and expressed discontent with Robinhood's "tokenizing AMC stocks without permission," Robinhood CEO Vlad waited most of the day tofinally respond with a question: "What’s there to worry about?" His tone completely dismissed Aron's threats and statements.
Thus, the Robinhood on-chain meme coin began its performance, capitalizing on the turbulence of "AMC CEO and Robinhood CEO's arguments."
The market cap of the AMC stock-related meme coin MEME (A Meme Coin) quickly surpassed, reachingover $60 million by around 2 PM, with an increase of over 3100 times during the day;
At around 2:30 PM, Aron responded again to Robinhood CEO, stating that his worries regarding Robinhood stock tokens were "almost related to the company's survival." He expressed that Robinhood offers AMC stock tokens through Jersey-related structures but does not operate under the traditional US securities law framework, describing this practice as "shocking and shameful." He believes the related synthetic stock market will decouple token holding from AMC's own financing capabilities, and stock tokens do not grant investors the voting rights and other shareholder rights that traditional stocks inherently possess, which may further undermine public confidence in financial markets. Finally, Aron called for Vlad Tenev and Robinhood to proactively cease the trading of AMC stock tokens and indicated that AMC has sought external securities legal advisors to explore whether legal action can be taken to force Robinhood to stop related operations while also seeking a response from the US SEC.
In response to this news, MEME's market cap quickly exceeded and reachedover $120 million before 3 PM; it even briefly surpassed $150 million around 3:12 PM, with a daily increase reaching an astonishing 6500 times.
Additionally, meme coins mentioned by Vlad, such as CONCERN, related to AMC's CINEMA and GameStop's GME (Greatest Meme Ever), also appeared on the Robinhood chain, reaching market caps in the millions at one point.
Five years ago, in the "meme stock trading battle" represented by GameStop and AMC, Robinhood leveraged its position as an internet brokerage and stock trading platform to win a round by pulling the plug; fast forward five years, and Robinhood has again secured a win with the ecosystem of meme coins on the Robinhood Chain amidst a time window where regulatory agencies have yet to delineate explicit boundaries. Timing and fate play their parts; while AMC may be the king of the entertainment and film industry, in the realm of capital and trading, it's just one of hundreds of tokenized stocks.
Of course, the concentration of attention still has a significant uplifting effect on AMC stock. In the afternoon, AMC Entertainment (AMC) stock's pre-market increase once expanded to 20.87%, quoted at $3.07. As of the time of writing, AMC's pre-market price is tentatively quoted at $2.76, with a 24-hour increase of 4.55%.
A New Round of Alliances: The Fierce Momentum of Stock Tokenization Behind the Dispute Between AMC and Robinhood
In this dispute of "AMC CEO VS Robinhood CEO" concerning the form, legitimacy, and legality of stock tokenization, a new round of factions, camps, and positions has already begun.
In the afternoon, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire posted on platform X: “More than 1% of CRCL's shares are held in the form of tokenized stocks, corresponding to over $280 million, the highest among all listed companies worldwide. When will the 'flip' (Odaily Planet Daily Note: referring to the proportion of stock tokenization exceeding that of stock securities) happen?”
Although currently, regulatory agencies like the US SEC have not provided detailed definitions of the regulatory boundaries of stock tokenization, the surge in trading volume of stock tokenization on Robinhood Chain, combined with the pricing of US stocks often occurring first on on-chain trading platforms like Hyperliquid, indicates that stock tokenization is undoubtedly an impending trend.
As for whether it can become the people's choice, it likely depends on whether this wave of "stock tokenization" can genuinely benefit retail investors and the general public, enabling more people to participate in investments in high-quality assets like US stocks through on-chain tokens.
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