Robinhood CEO says stock tokens do not require issuer consent

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said companies cannot control every financial product created on the basis of their publicly traded shares amid controversy over the company’s stock token business, according to a CNBC interview. Tenev explained, "tokenization" is a way to represent the value of various assets, including listed securities and real-world assets, in digital form on a blockchain. He added holding an asset token does not confer direct ownership of the underlying asset itself. Once a company’s shares are listed, shareholders own transferable property, and other financial institutions should be able to create products referencing those shares without the issuer’s permission, Tenev said. While stock issuers can determine the rights and obligations attached to the shares they issue, they cannot control whether third parties create separate securities based on those shares, he added.