Robinhood Defies AMC's Cease-and-Desist Over Stock Tokens — SkimNews
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- Robinhood rejected AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron's cease-and-desist demand to stop trading tokens tied to AMC stock, with chief legal officer Dan Gallagher — a former SEC commissioner — writing on X: "Send your lawyers and we'll educate them."
- AMC's Adam Aron accused Robinhood of marketing securities that pose as AMC stock without complying with U.S. securities laws and questioned the use of a Jersey-based issuer, saying the tokens undermine shareholder rights and companies' control over capital raising.
- Aron announced plans to raise concerns with the SEC but stopped short of filing a lawsuit or confirming an SEC investigation, according to the source.
- Legal experts told Decrypt that AMC's strongest potential claims would center on trademark misuse beyond fair use or false association, not U.S. securities law — given the tokens are issued offshore by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited and cannot be sold to U.S. persons.
- Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev shared Gallagher's post with the note "We stand behind Stock Tokens," and general counsel Daniel Lasko argued the products attract international investors to U.S. capital markets rather than undermining them.
- Tokenized stocks generated $15.1 billion in spot trading volume in Q1 2026 per CoinGecko data cited in the source, underscoring the scale of the market AMC is now contesting.
- Robinhood previously faced a similar objection from OpenAI last summer over tokens bearing its name, which Tenev defended; AMC's push now puts another unwilling company in the path of Robinhood's tokenization expansion.
Why it matters: AMC's leverage looks thin on securities law grounds because Robinhood's tokens are issued offshore and barred from U.S. distribution — but trademark or false-association claims could still force rebranding, and AMC's SEC complaint threat invites regulator scrutiny on a $15.1 billion quarterly market that Robinhood is rapidly expanding.
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