Robinhood is already facing a class action lawsuit after the microtrading platform deliberately blocked users from trading GameStop stock as the stock catapulted in value.
The news shows some nearly immediate impact to Robinhood after the snap decision.
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“Robinhood purposefully, willfully, and knowingly removing the stock ‘GME’ from its trading platform in the midst of an unprecedented stock thereby deprived retail investors of the ability to invest in the open-market and manipulating the open-market,” the class action complaint reads. Fox Business journalist Lydia Moynihan tweeted news of the class action earlier on Thursday.
Do you work at Robinhood or any other microtrading platform that has blocked GameStop or other stock? We’d love to hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, OTR chat on jfcox@jabber.ccc.de, or email joseph.cox@vice.com.
GameStop’s stock has skyrocketed after members of the Wall Street Bets subreddit have deliberately tried to push its price higher.
Robinhood’s move has brought together some unlikely allies. After Motherboard reported Robinhood’s action against GameStop and other company stock, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that “This is unacceptable. We now need to know more about [Robinhood’s] decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit. As a member of the Financial Services [Committee], I’d support a hearing if necessary.”
Senator Ted Cruz then tweeted “Fully agree.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission did not respond to an earlier request for comment sent Thursday asking for a statement on Robinhood’s actions.
Robinhood said it had no comment on the class action lawsuit.
Update: This piece has been updated with a response from Robinhood.
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