An Ethereum pockets distributing Robinhood’s controversial OpenAI “inventory tokens” has been linked to a dealer who as soon as minted a meme NFT and misplaced $15,000 on Hyperliquid.
The invention got here from Coinbase government Conor Grogan, who posted the findings on X.
The Complicated Robinhood and OpnAI Tokenization Drama
On X, analysts traced previous exercise of the pockets and located it had minted a Determined Ape Spouse NFT for $500 in 2021. It additionally suffered a significant buying and selling loss on the decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid.
In the meantime, Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik shared additional pockets information. It confirmed the identical pockets had funded a FriendTech account belonging to Seonge Lee, identified on-line as @seongboii—a product supervisor at Robinhood.
The pockets additionally interacted with OpenSea, Stargate Bridge, and meme coin contracts like TRUMP and SHIBAC, portray a profile of a high-risk, retail-level crypto consumer.
Robinhood and OpenAI’s Clarification
Earlier this week, Robinhood launched “inventory tokens” for EU prospects. These crypto-wrapped belongings mirror real-world shares like Tesla and Apple and commerce 24/5.
Within the announcement, Robinhood stated it might increase this providing to incorporate personal corporations, resembling OpenAI and SpaceX, later this summer season.
As a part of a promotional push, it supplied €5 price of OpenAI and SpaceX tokens to new signups earlier than July 7.
Nevertheless, at present, OpenAI posted a blunt denial on X. The corporate added that no fairness switch had been accredited, warning customers to be cautious.
Robinhood responded hours later, saying:
“These tokens give retail buyers oblique publicity to non-public markets… enabled by Robinhood’s possession stake in a particular function car,” Robinhood posted on X (previously Twitter).
Regardless of the controversy, Robinhood shares surged to a document excessive of $97.98 on July 2. The increase adopted remarks from SEC Chair Paul Atkins, who referred to as inventory tokenization an “innovation” price watching.
The market’s enthusiasm contrasts with rising concern amongst authorized analysts and Web3 observers in regards to the implications of such unapproved token launches.
