Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev argued that its stock tokens should not automatically require the underlying company's consent, while acknowledging that token holders do not receive voting rights in that company.
The comments, made in a CNBC “Squawk Box” interview on Wednesday, Sept. 9, clarify the structure at the center of Robinhood's dispute with AMC Entertainment: Robinhood is defending a separate security that references AMC stock, not an AMC share placed directly on a blockchain.
“Issuers should have control and do have control over the rights and obligations of the stock that they issue, but that doesn't mean they control everything about it,” Tenev said. “In particular, they don't control other companies issuing their own securities that reference those shares.”
“Issuer consent depends on what exactly you're doing,” he added. Robinhood's stock tokens are “tokenized securities that are issued by a separate entity that are backed by underlying shares,” Tenev said, and “should not automatically require issuer consent.”
Tenev also acknowledged during the interview that token holders do not receive the voting rights attached to the underlying shares. Asked whether Robinhood would vote those shares, he said the company “hasn't really announced plans for the voting aspect of that.”
