- Bloomberg reports that Robinhood’s CEO received death threats after last month’s Gamestop stock surge.
- Robinhood banned Gamestop’s share trading on January 28 after an unexpected rally.
- CEO Vlad Tanev is due to testify before Congress on Thursday about Robinhood’s decision.
- Visit Insider’s business section for more stories.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Robinhood CEO Vlad Tanev is staying at the hotel due to the reaction following the Gamestop trading rally in late January.
Robinhood banned Gamestop’s share trading on January 28 after a 2,000% month-to-date jump in the share price managed by retail investors. Robinhood users, including members of the Red Street’s Street Bets Forum, who sparked the Gamestop rally, accused the pay firm of unfairly manipulating free-market trading.
Some reactions were violent. Tanevev received death threats and has avoided going home for the past few days, a source told Bloomberg.
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Police in Menlo Park, California, told Tyler Sonemaker of Insider last week that a handful of protesters threw dog faces at Robinhood’s headquarters and looked through the statue at the property. The Wall Street Journal reports that institutional investors betting on Game Stop said they have received personal threats.
Robinhood initially said it blocked the purchase of Game Stop shares to “help inform customers” amid market volatility. It was later clarified that the decision was due to the deposit requirements of clearinghouses registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Obviously, this decision was not made in the direction that we are moving towards market makers or other market participants,” he said. Said on Twitter January 28.
High-profile business leaders and lawmakers questioned Robinhood’s decision to ban the trade. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned Robinhood’s decision and asked Mark Cube on Twitter if the app’s trade was over. “Because on these businesses they are losing theirs“
Tanev is set to testify during a congressional hearing on his pay decision on Thursday. The executive recently said on “The All in Podcast” that his company would have negotiated whether to keep the business “a little better.”
“Conspiracy theories started coming in as soon as those emails went out. So my phone rang ‘How can you do this? How can you be next to hedge funds?’ Of course we’re not next to hedge funds. We are creating products for our customers. And we had to do what we had to do to meet our deposit requirements. “
Robinhood did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
