Robinhood Ventures Fund I (RVI), a publicly traded closed-end fund that provides retail investors access to private equity investments, announced a $75 million investment in OpenAI.
company announced On Wednesday it bought $75 million of the AI developer’s common stock, which will be used as the underlying asset to give Robinhood clients value exposure to OpenAI through the fund’s enterprise token.
The investment is “one of the largest investments RVI has ever made,” according to RVI President Sara Pinto, who said the token aims to democratize access to private investing.
RVI shares were trading more than 14% higher at $27.85 on Wednesday at the time of publication. data From Yahoo Finance.
Regulatory questions raised about Robinhood’s private equity token for retail investors Legal rights of token holders And how does value risk through tokens differ from holding private equity in a company, which is reserved for qualified investors.
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Robinhood announces private equity token for retail, but legal issues abound
Robinhood distributed OpenAI and SpaceX tokens to users as part of its June 2025 Rollout of tokenized stock trading For EU users.
However, OpenAI immediately responded to the announcement, warning that the token Do not represent private equity stake In the company.
“These ‘OpenAI tokens’ are not OpenAI equity. We did not partner with, are not involved in, and do not endorse Robinhood,” OpenAI Said In those days. “Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval – we have not approved any transfer.”
John Murillo, chief business officer of fintech firm B2BROKER, told Cointelegraph that investors holding these private equity tokens should understand that they Do not hold “real shares” In these companies.
Clients may be entitled to payments if shares of the underlying private equity companies rise, but according to Murillo, the token is a financial instrument created entirely by a third party, not an equity.
Murillo said, “There are no direct claims on company assets, no voting rights and no access to internal financial information.”
A request for comment sent by Cointelegraph to Robinhood was not immediately responded to.
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