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Robinhood Tokenization talk
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Robinhood slips amid cross talk on its tokenization plans

Robinhood gave back a bit of the sharp gains that pushed it to new highs in recent days after OpenAI issued a statement on Robinhood’s announcement that it planned to sell “tokenized” versions of shares in the hot AI startup.

Matt Phillips

Robinhood Markets shares slipped roughly 4% in early trading after OpenAI issued a public statement that “tokens” do not represent equity investments at the $300 billion privately held AI startup.

(Disclosure: Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company. I own Robinhood stock as part of my compensation.)

Earlier this week, Robinhood had spotlighted plans to sell what it called “stock tokens” in Europe, as well a limited “stock token giveaway on OpenAI and SpaceX” to eligible customers on the continent.

The market seemed to love the notion of tokenized stock trading — as well as the company’s general push deeper into the world of crypto and decentralized finance — with shares seeing a nearly 13% gain on Monday after the token announcement.

That added to weeks of romping for Robinhood, against the backdrop of an increasingly rapid regulatory revolution connecting cryptocurrencies with the broader financial system.

Despite the excitement, a plan to “tokenize” trading will involve plenty of technical details that it seems traders are trying to grok in real time.

For example, OpenAI on Wednesday stressed in a public statement that tokens are not the same as actual equity shares in the company, posting this at the close of trading on Wednesday, sending Robinhood shares down.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev posted this response, acknowledging that while the tokens aren’t “equity” per se, they “effectively give retail investors exposure to these private assets.”


For good measure, Barclays analysts on Thursday published a note clarifying their understanding of what Robinhood’s stock tokens actually are, writing:

“Rather than owning the equity, the tokenholder technically enters into a derivatives contract with Robinhood Europe, and that derivatives contract, which is designed to track the price of the underlying asset, is what is tokenized and recorded on a blockchain. Some of the additional technical details provided have, from our conversations, caused some consternation among investors.”

But as investor consternation goes, any surrounding Robinhood seems pretty small in context. The shares remain up 150% so far in 2025, with most of that gain booked in the last three months.

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Opendoor surges on bullish options bets as traders look to potential real estate tokenization

Opendoor Technologies is surging on Friday amid bullish options bets and social media posts referencing unconfirmed rumors about the company.

The stock moved higher in the premarket session after the soft inflation report boosted stocks and briefly pushed long-term bond yields lower (positive for a real estate company). But the real gains came after the opening bell rang and options demand picked up.

As of 12:11 p.m. ET, roughly 664,000 call options have changed hands versus a 10-day average of about 364,000 for a full session.

What seems to be galvanizing members of the “$OPEN Army” is the potential for the company to pursue the tokenization of real-world assets, with Robinhood often bandied about as a potential partner in this endeavor.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

Opendoor bulls have often pointed to signs that Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev appears to be fond of the company, from what appeared on-screen during a demo of a social trading feature at HOOD’s conference in Las Vegas in September to offering support to Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian in setting up an opportunity for retail shareholders to ask questions during the online real estate company’s next earnings call.

Opendoor is currently in a quiet period ahead of earnings, which restricts what type of announcements a company can make.

The call options seeing the most demand expire this Friday with strike prices of $8, $8.50, and $9.

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Beyond Meat gains amid slightly better-than-expected Q3 sales, positive commentary on legal issues

Shares of Beyond Meat built on their premarket gains after the plant-based meat seller reported preliminary Q3 sales a bit ahead of Wall Street’s expectations, before paring this advance after the market opened.

For the three months ended September 27, management said net revenue would be approximately $70 million. That’s in line with their guidance range of $68 million to $73 million, but Wall Street was expecting sales to skew toward the lower end of that range, at $68.7 million.

However, its anticipated gross margin of 10% to 11% is lower than analysts had been expecting (13.8%). That’s still the case even adjusting for expenses related to its downsizing of operations in China, which would have left margins around 12% to 13%, per Beyond.

Perhaps more importantly, the company provided positive commentary regarding arbitration discussions with a former co-manufacturer that appear to bring it closer to a resolution while limiting potential damages:

“As previously disclosed, in March 2024, a former co-manufacturer brought an action against the Company in a confidential arbitration proceeding claiming that the Company inappropriately terminated its agreement with the co-manufacturer and claimed damages of at least $73.0 million. On September 15, 2025, the arbitrator issued an interim award (the ‘Interim Award’) and found that the Company had a valid basis to terminate the agreement with the Manufacturer. The details of the Interim Award are confidential, and a final arbitration award has not been issued. Additional proceedings will be held to determine the award of attorneys’ fees, prejudgment interest and costs, if any, before a final arbitration award will be issued. On September 25, 2025, the Manufacturer filed a request with the arbitrator to re-open the arbitration hearing. On September 29, 2025, the Company opposed this request. On October 20, 2025, the arbitrator denied the Manufacturer’s request.”

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Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.