Robinhood shares soar as new crypto stock tokens open doors to overseas investors

By James Rogers

The stock tokens give E.U. investors exposure to hundreds of U.S. stocks, as well as to private companies SpaceX and OpenAI

Robinhood Markets Inc. shares soared into record territory Monday, lifted by the financial-services platform's launch of U.S. stock and ETF tokens for customers in the European Union.

Robinhood (HOOD) said that European customers will now have access to more than 200 U.S. stock and ETF tokens, which include tech heavyweights Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Apple Inc. (AAPL) and e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN). Stock tokens for private companies SpaceX and OpenAI are also available.

The stock ended Monday's session up 12.8% to hit an 11th record-high close for the month. It ran up 41.5% in June - its best month since the 59.8% rally seen last November - after climbing 34.7% in May.

Speaking during a launch event, Robinhood Chief Executive Vlad Tenev said that Robinhood is giving E.U. customers "exposure to two of the most valuable private companies in the world right now."

"As long as you're a Robinhood E.U. customer, you'll be able to claim what we believe are the world's first OpenAI and SpaceX private-stock tokens on a decentralized blockchain," he added.

IPO spinoff talk continues to swirl around Starlink, the SpaceX-owned satellite-internet constellation, following comments from CEO Elon Musk. Musk was asked about the possibility of a public listing for SpaceX or Starlink during a wide-ranging Bloomberg interview last month, and said that Starlink may go public at some point in the future. "I'm in no rush to go public," he added.

Earlier this month, Cathie Wood's Ark Invest said that SpaceX has an expected enterprise value of $2.5 trillion by 2030.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI, the darling of the artificial-intelligence revolution, raised money at a $300 billion valuation earlier this year.

There are zero commissions or added spreads from Robinhood on the tokenized stocks, but the company said that other fees may apply.

The stock tokens will initially be issued on Arbitrum cryptocurrency technology, although they will eventually be issued on Robinhood's own blockchain.

Robinhood, like Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) and Strategy Inc. (MSTR), is seen as a beneficiary of a crypto-friendly Trump administration - although bitcoin (BTCUSD) fell during President Trump's first 100 days in office this year.

Robinhood shares are up 151.3% in 2025, outpacing the S&P 500 index's SPX gain of 5.5% and bitcoin's 15.1% rally.

-James Rogers

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