Robinhood has launched tokens that track the private market valuation of OpenAI. In other words, they’re letting users speculate on the value of a non-public company - via intermediary-issued tokens.
To grab attention, they even decided to give some away. A classic crypto move.
And attention they got. OpenAI quickly responded, saying they’re not involved, didn’t approve it, and don’t endorse it in any way.
But here’s the thing: why would Robinhood even need OpenAI’s approval?
In crypto, tokens pegged to real-world assets are nothing new. Some projects seek approvals, others don’t - because legally, it’s often unnecessary.
Expecting Robinhood to get OpenAI’s blessing is like expecting MakerDAO to ask the Fed before issuing DAI.
The setup is similar:
So… what exactly would that permission be for?
It feels like OpenAI’s post is just stirring uncertainty around real-world asset tokenization - a fast-growing trend in crypto.
By the way, some of these tokens are already available on rabbit.io. No OpenAI token yet. But something like DAI - easy. No limits, no sign-up, best rate guaranteed.