---
title: "Scandal-Plagued Robinhood Suffers Worst IPO in History"
description: "The scandal-plagued stock broker app Robinhood had the worst-ever IPO in American history for a company of its size of Thursday."
date: "2021-07-30"
modified: "2021-07-30"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/scandal-robinhood-worst-ipo-history"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "finance"
  - "ipo"
  - "robinhood"
  - "the digest"
---

# Scandal-Plagued Robinhood Suffers Worst IPO in History

![The scandal-plagued stock broker app Robinhood had the worst-ever IPO in American history for a company of its size of Thursday.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/scandal-robinhood-worst-ipo-history.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Futurism\</em\>*

## New Record!

The scandal-ridden stock trading app Robinhood went public on Thursday with a record-shattering IPO. The only problem? It broke the record in the wrong direction.

Robinhood's IPO is officially the worst-performing out of all 51 American companies that raised at least the same amount of money, [according to analysis from *Bloomberg*](<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-29/robinhood-flirts-with-worst-debut-ever-for-ipo-of-its-size>). Trading began at $38 per share in the company, which was already on the low end, but then shares dropped a precipitous 8.4 percent over the course of the trading session — marking an unfortunate bookend in the saga of a broker that's been absolutely dripping with controversy.

## Punch After Punch

Robinhood has had a pretty rough 2021. When the [Gamestonk surge](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-wall-street-bets>) and other meme investment trends began, the platform seemed to be on top of the world due to its promise of making the stock market more accessible to the public than ever before.

But then the company [interfered with users' portfolios](<https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/01/robinhood-says-it-cannot-assure-investors-a-meme-mania-wont-hit-it-again.html>), limiting their ability to [buy or sell certain shares](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-grills-robinhood-ceo-shutting-wall-street-bets-trades>), and [automatically selling](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-deletes-negative-robinhood-reviews>) off their assets, prompting [calls for federal investigations](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/politicians-slam-robinhood-wall-street-bets>) by odd bedfellows including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Elon Musk, and Ted Cruz.

The app's [rating plummeted](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/robinhood-down-stars-google-play>) and it [frequently crashed](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/robinhood-dogecoin-spike>) during moments of high trading activity — arguably when its users needed to be able to access their portfolios the most. Most recently, Robinhood had to pay a [nearly $70 million fine](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/robinhood-70-million-fine>) for, in layperson's terms, being really bad at what it's supposed to do — so perhaps it's not too big of a shock that would-be investors weren't too thrilled to take part in the company's dismal IPO.

**READ MORE:** [Robinhood Has the Worst Debut Ever for IPO of Its Size](<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-29/robinhood-flirts-with-worst-debut-ever-for-ipo-of-its-size>) \[*Bloomberg*\]

**More on Robinhood:** *[Robinhood Paying $70 Million Fine For Being Absolutely Terrible](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/robinhood-70-million-fine>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)