Behind the 1000x Star Meme Coin and Stock Craze: AMC CEO Slams Robinhood’s Tokenized U.S. Stocks as Illegal, Engages Securities Lawyers to Launch Investigation

According to GMGN data, the meme stock crypto project MEME on Robinhood Chain has been rallying, with its market capitalization briefly surging past $130 million to a new all-time high before pulling back to $115 million. The token has surged over 1,000% in 24 hours, with trading volume reaching $77.8 million. MEME leverages Robinhood, a stock trading platform, pairing with tokenized US theater chain AMC Entertainment (stock ticker: AMC) as its liquidity pool, providing liquidity via the MEME/AMC trading pair. BlockBeats Note: Stock Meme is an emerging concept that combines traditional meme coins with tokenized US stocks. Unlike meme coins paired with USDT or ETH, these tokens are directly paired with on-chain US stock tokens (such as NVDA, TSLA, AAPL, etc.). This model retains meme coins' high volatility and community-driven speculative traits, while tying to the popularity and narrative of real stocks. A portion of transaction fees often flows back to the community treasury to accumulate corresponding US stock tokens, forming a dual-driven mechanism of "sentiment speculation + real asset anchoring". Price fluctuations are significant, so investment requires caution.

According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, the Ethereum address CUMBUCKET.ETH initially spent 3.17 ETH (approximately $5,650) to acquire 4.73 million PONS tokens. It has since sold 3.73 million of these tokens, netting a total of roughly $1.74 million in cash. The address currently holds 1 million PONS, valued at about $666,000. Calculated based on the cashed-out amount plus the value of remaining holdings, the combined realized and unrealized profits from this transaction total around $2.4 million, while the initial cost was only approximately $5,650.

Per Lookonchain monitoring, DeGods founder Frank (@frankdegods) spent $1,491 to buy 11 million MEME tokens 11 hours ago; the holding is now worth over $1.2 million, delivering an 810x return.

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), U.S. cinema chain AMC’s after-hours trading gain has expanded to over 20%, with its current price standing at $3.07.

AMC CEO Adam Aron responded to Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, saying Tenev’s concerns about AMC’s stock tokens are “almost existential for the company.” He questioned why Robinhood, a U.S.-based firm, is able to issue products that purportedly represent AMC stock but fail to comply with U.S. securities laws via an offshore entity based in Jersey. Aron noted that AMC spends millions of dollars annually to adhere to U.S. securities regulations, adding that Robinhood’s so-called “synthetic equity market” could decouple stock token trading from the financing arrangements of listed companies. Traditional stockholders hold rights such as voting, but Aron argued that stock tokens do not represent actual equity, meaning investors cannot access corresponding shareholder rights. Aron demanded that Tenev and Robinhood voluntarily halt AMC stock token trading; otherwise, AMC has retained external securities lawyers to explore measures to force Robinhood to cease such activity. He also said he will submit inquiries to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding Robinhood’s practices. Earlier reports stated that Aron released a statement this morning revealing Robinhood is advancing a tokenized real-world asset and stock token project involving AMC and more than 190 other companies. Aron clarified that AMC has no connection to the project, does not endorse the practices involved, and will immediately retain external securities lawyers to review the matter. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev responded that there is no need for concern.

According to Bitget data, the Nikkei 225 index closed 806.46 points higher on Friday, September 4, rising 1.26% to 65,020.94 points. South Korea’s KOSPI index also closed up 107.73 points, or 1.64%, at 6,687.21 points on the same day, with SK Hynix gaining over 3% and Samsung Electronics rising 2.2%.