🚀 Robinhood Disrupts Europe: Tokenized OpenAI & SpaceX Shares Now Live for EU Investors

Wall Street's favorite disruptor just went global—with a crypto twist. Robinhood rolls out blockchain-based shares of Silicon Valley's hottest unicorns to European traders, bypassing traditional market gatekeepers.

The play: fractional ownership meets DeFi

Europeans can now grab slivers of Elon's SpaceX and Sam Altman's OpenAI through tokenized equities—no six-figure buy-ins required. The move pressures stale EU brokers still charging 1% custody fees for paper certificates.

Regulatory chess match

Robinhood's landing in Europe comes with MiFID II compliance baked in—because nothing says 'democratized finance' like 2,000 pages of financial regulation. Take that, Coinbase.

One cynic's note: Remember when they turned off the buy button? Now they're selling you illiquid pre-IPO scraps as 'innovation.' The house always wins.

A New Era of Private Market Access

According to Tenev, European users who download the Robinhood app will soon be able to claim tokenized shares representing ownership in firms that are not yet publicly traded. The offering, expected to roll out within the next week, aims to democratize access to private market assets—something typically reserved for institutional investors or high-net-worth individuals.

In a symbolic move, Tenev transferred $1 million worth of tokenized OpenAI shares to Robinhood Europe, which will distribute the assets to eligible users in the NEAR future.

“Turns out the OpenAI stock token transaction did indeed succeed,” Tenev confirmed in a follow-up post on X.

Expansion Includes U.S. Equities and Crypto Services

Beyond the high-profile tokens, Robinhood plans to offer over 200 tokenized versions of publicly traded U.S. stocks to European customers. This effort is part of a broader expansion strategy that also includes staking services and perpetual crypto trading for users in the United States.

The tokenized stocks will be backed 1:1 with real shares and are expected to be tradable around the clock, offering new liquidity and accessibility to investors globally.

Strategic Move to Stay Competitive

The announcement marks a major step for Robinhood as it looks to expand beyond its Core U.S. retail base and into a more global, blockchain-driven trading environment. By merging traditional equities with blockchain infrastructure, Robinhood is positioning itself at the intersection of fintech and decentralized finance.

Tenev’s bet on tokenized securities could signal a wider shift in how investors access both private and public markets—especially as demand grows for fractional, 24/7, and borderless trading options.

Kosta Gushterov

Kosta has been working in the crypto industry for over 4 years. He strives to present different perspectives on a given topic and enjoys the sector for its transparency and dynamism. In his work, he focuses on balanced coverage of events and developments in the crypto space, providing information to his readers from a neutral perspective.

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