1 week ago
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Robinhood is planning to add in-kind redemption and voting capabilities to its Stock Tokens product, tackling the two biggest criticisms that have dogged the platform’s foray into tokenized equities since its launch.
What Stock Tokens are, and what they aren’t
Robinhood’s Stock Tokens launched in July 2026, issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited as tokenized debt securities. They trade on Robinhood Chain, an Arbitrum-based Ethereum Layer 2 network, and provide 1:1 economic exposure to underlying US equities and ETFs.
That last part matters. “Economic exposure” means you get the price movement and dividend equivalent of holding Apple or Tesla stock. But you don’t actually own the shares. A US custodian holds the real equities on behalf of the issuer, while token holders receive what is essentially an IOU with a stock ticker attached.
Over 190 equities and ETFs are currently available for trading through the platform. Dividends don’t arrive as cash in your account. Instead, an on-chain multiplier reinvests distributions into additional underlying shares, adjusting for corporate actions without changing your token balance.
The product is currently unavailable to US persons and residents of several jurisdictions including the UK, Canada, and Switzerland.
The redemption problem
Right now, if you want to exit a Stock Token position, you have two options: sell on the secondary market, or redeem directly with Robinhood’s Jersey entity. Both routes come with KYC and AML requirements.
In-kind redemption would add a third option. Instead of selling tokens for cash or stablecoins, holders could convert their tokens into the actual underlying securities. You’d go from holding a tokenized claim on Apple stock to holding real Apple shares in a brokerage account.
The fee structure also provides a carrot: redemption fees currently start at zero for an initial period, lowering the barrier for early adopters.
The voting question is thornier
As of September 2026, CEO Vlad Tenev confirmed that voting rights for token holders have not been implemented and remain absent from the product’s structure.
The core issue is legal, not technical. Stock Tokens are debt securities, not equity. The actual shares sit with a custodian, and the legal owner of those shares is the issuer entity, not the token holder.
This gap became acutely visible during a public dispute with AMC Entertainment in September 2026. Tenev stated that the token structure does not guarantee the automatic requirement for issuer consent, a position that didn’t exactly calm nerves among AMC investors holding tokens instead of actual stock.
Why this matters for tokenized assets broadly
The 24/7 trading capability on Robinhood Chain does offer genuine advantages. Traditional stock markets close at 4 PM Eastern and take weekends off. Tokenized versions don’t.
If Robinhood successfully implements both in-kind redemption and voting pass-through, it would set a new benchmark for what tokenized securities need to offer to be taken seriously. If the effort stalls, particularly on voting rights, it could reinforce skepticism that tokenized equities are a neat demo that doesn’t quite replicate the real thing.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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