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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

7/3/25 9:54AM

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.

These “OpenAI tokens” are not OpenAI equity. We did not partner with Robinhood, were not involved in this, and do not endorse it. Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval—we did not approve any transfer.

Please be careful.
— OpenAI Newsroom (@OpenAINewsroom) July 2, 2025

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.”

At our recent crypto event, we announced a limited Stock Token giveaway on OpenAI and SpaceX to eligible European customers. While it is true that they aren’t technically “equity” (you can see the precise dynamics in our Terms for those interested), the tokens effectively give…
— Vlad Tenev (@vladtenev) July 2, 2025

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.

Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa

S&P 500 closes at record as tech heavyweights flex (besides Apple)

The Magnificent 7 did the heavy lifting, performing better than any S&P 500 sector ETF on Tuesday.

Matt Phillips

Oracle rips as backlog builds, but company misses on top and bottom lines

Oracle shares shot higher after-hours as the company reported a growing backlog, even though its fiscal Q1 results fell slightly short of expectations. The company reported:

Adjusted earnings per share of $1.47 vs. expectations of $1.48.
Revenue of $14.93 billion vs. expectations of $15.04 billion.

Shares were up 21% in after-hours trading, which is a pretty crazy stock move for a company with a market cap of more than $675 billion.

The market was likely impressed by a giant build in the company’s “remaining performance obligations,” or RPO, which is how the company measures the value of signed cloud computing deals that haven’t yet been reported as revenue. In a statement, CEO Safra Catz said:

“We signed four multi-billion-dollar contracts with three different customers in Q1. This resulted in RPO contract backlog increasing 359% to $455 billion. It was an astonishing quarter — and demand for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure continues to build. Over the next few months, we expect to sign-up several additional multi-billion-dollar customers and RPO is likely to exceed half-a-trillion dollars.”

Oracle Announces Fiscal Year 2026 First Quarter Financial Results

“We signed four multi-billion-dollar contracts with three different customers in Q1. This resulted in RPO contract backlog increasing 359% to $455 billion. It was an astonishing quarter — and demand for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure continues to build. Over the next few months, we expect to sign-up several additional multi-billion-dollar customers and RPO is likely to exceed half-a-trillion dollars.”

Matt Phillips

Robinhood rides index inclusion rally to record close

Robinhood Markets notched a new closing high Tuesday, as the crypto, stock, and options brokerage continued to ride a rally set off by the announcement that it would be added to the S&P 500 Index.

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

Robinhood appears to be benefiting from the so-called inclusion effect, a market phenomenon where companies that are added to major market indexes can see a price move as index funds — whose holdings must mirror the membership of the index — rush to buy the stock.

For what it’s worth, it seems like Robinhood will upon entry (effective prior to the market open on September 22) be the top-performing member of the index, as its roughly 220% gain this year is more or less double that of the current leader, Seagate Technology Holdings.

Luke Kawa

GameStop posts impressive Q2 results with big sales beat

Don’t call it a comeback!

GameStop is jumping aftermarket as the video games and collectibles retailer posted an impressive set of second-quarter results.

Net sales: $972 million (estimate $823 million).
Adjusted diluted earnings per share: $0.25 (estimate $0.16).

Note: these consensus estimates, compiled by Bloomberg, are from only two analysts.

The sales beat is particularly noteworthy, as the company had already done an exemplary job of expense control to help protect its bottom line. Revenues were up more than 20% versus the year-ago quarter, the biggest annual jump in sales since the company (and the world) was emerging from the pandemic in 2021.

The options market implies a move of plus or minus about 9.4% on earnings.

For a while, GameStop’s ability to generate positive net income was purely a function of the interest earnings on its substantial cash hoard. But now, GameStop has strung together five consecutive quarters of positive operating cash flows for the first time in its history!

This was the quarter when the company began to act on its bitcoin treasury strategy, raising money through the sale of convertible notes and using some proceeds to purchase the crypto asset.

Because of how much market value has been ascribed to potential for GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen to use its significant cash holdings to transform the company, the prospect of converting cash into bitcoin initially did not sit too well with investors following the announcement of this new strategic push in March.

Shares of the once-upon-a-time meme stock really didn’t get too much love during retail frenzies earlier in the summer, and were down about 25% year to date heading into this release.

As of the close of the quarter, its bitcoin holdings were valued at $528.6 million.