AMC Entertainment shares surged more than 15% ahead of Friday's trading session. The cause was an unprecedented public conflict between the cinema chain's CEO Adam Aron and Robinhood chief Vlad Tenev, unfolding around the controversial practice of issuing tokenized stock equivalents.
Aron accused the platform of creating derivative instruments that mirror the price of AMC shares but grant holders neither ownership rights nor voting power. In his words, such actions are unacceptable, and he demanded that Robinhood immediately cease issuing such tokens, which are said to cover more than 190 companies.
Rise amid a falling week
Before the market opened on Friday, AMC shares were trading at $2.92, up 15.19% (or 38.5 cents) from the previous close. The intraday high reached $3.03, followed by some correction. At the current price, the company's market capitalization stands at about $2.6 billion with 893 million shares outstanding, whereas as recently as Thursday's close the stock was worth $2.54, with a market cap estimated at $2.27 billion.
However, it is worth noting that Friday's jump failed to reverse the week's negative trend: over five days, AMC shares lost 5.93%. The trading range throughout the week was $2.50–2.72 until this impressive surge occurred.
The essence of the conflict: a legal collision or a market test?
Aron emphasized that AMC spends millions of dollars annually to comply with U.S. securities laws, while Robinhood issues tokens roughly 5,000 km from the United States — on the island of Jersey, through Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited, which, by the platform's own admission, is unregulated.
In response to a brief "What's the problem?" from Tenev, Aron laid out a detailed position: "I publicly demand that you and Robinhood immediately STOP trading AMC stock tokens. If you do not, our expensive securities legal team will analyze whether we can force you to do so." The AMC chief also stated his intention to contact the SEC to determine what options the regulator has to support this stance.
Notably, the scale of the tokenized market is incomparable to the company's own market capitalization. According to analytics platforms, the largest AMC-token liquidity pool amounts to about $382,600, the number of holders does not exceed 2,000 addresses, and the market capitalization of this asset approaches $2.8 million.
Context: the OpenAI precedent and the memecoin attack
This is not the first time stock issuers have expressed dissatisfaction with Robinhood's actions. In July 2025, OpenAI voiced similar complaints, emphasizing that their tokens on the platform do not represent equity stakes. At that time, the wallet distributing these tokens had an unusual on-chain history.
Robinhood Chain, launched on July 1 to service tokenized assets, quickly faced a wave of memecoins that took over the network and accounted for the bulk of its turnover. Now, a $2.8 million token market has demonstrated the ability to shift the market cap of a public company worth $2.6 billion — this is the most striking test yet of the hypothesis that derivative instruments influence real prices.
The letter demanding a halt to issuance has not yet been published, and the SEC is refraining from comments. The key question is whether Friday's growth can hold after the market opens, or whether this is merely a short-term spike driven by emotional sentiment.
In my view, this incident is a vivid illustration of a fundamental problem: the tokenization of real assets without proper regulation creates a parallel market that can manipulate perceptions of value. If the SEC intervenes, it will set a precedent that determines the future of the entire tokenized securities industry.