Elon Musk clashes with Robinhood CEO over GameStop trading ban

The interview was conducted on the audio-only social network, Clubhouse

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and husband to Grimes, has clashed with Vlad Tenev, the CEO of stock investing app Robinhood, over the platform’s decision to limit trading of GameStop shares and other volatile stocks.

On January 31, Musk made an appearance on the audio-only social network Clubhouse, where he grilled Tenev on why Robinhood had restricted users from trading in GameStop and other similar shares. Musk also asked if the platform was “beholden to” its biggest client Citadel Securities, which had a significant short position on GameSpot.

Tenev said rumours that “Citadel or other market makers kind of pressured us into” restricting trades on Robinhood were simply “just false”. He added that the app stands for “democratising access to stocks”.

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“We want to give people the access… but we had no choice in this case, we had to conform to our regulatory capital requirements,” Tenev continued, while noting that his company could have been more transparent when it came to the restrictions. “When we do open [on Monday]… we’ll be able to kind of relax the stringent position limits that we put on these securities on Friday.”

Elsewhere during Musk’s 90-minute session on Clubhouse, he also said that he believes that Bitcoin will gain more mainstream trust among financial institutions in the near future. He noted that the digital currency is on “the verge of getting a broad acceptance”.

“I should have at least bought some Bitcoin eight years ago,” Musk said. “I was a little slow on the uptake there… but I do at this point think Bitcoin is a good thing – I am a supporter of Bitcoin.”

In other GameStop news, the stock market saga is reportedly being turned into a film. Production company MGM has acquired rights to a book proposal from New York Times best-selling author Ben Mezrich, who’s best known for penning The Accidental Billionaires which was adapted into the film The Social Network.

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