#Robinhood CEO tells CNBC and Andrew Ross Sorkin that removing stocks like #GME was "difficult" but "part of normal operations." He adds they "absolutely did not do this at the direction of any market maker or hedge fund" but b/c they have financial requirements to follow

Shorter #Robinhood CEO on CNBC: Hey, we still have thousands of other companies you can trade! And we're NUMBER ONE on app stores! Yay!

"Of course, Robinhood stands for everyday investors. From the very beginning we have stood for investors, opening up access[.]"

My GOSH #Robinhood's CEO is absolutely flailing: "I know how Clorox and Lysol felt in the pandemic...We understand our customers are upset...We stand for the everyday investor and we do believe that you should be able to buy and sell...subject to all requirements" $GME $AMC #NOK

WOW.

#Robinhood's CEO made things WORSE: "We realize customers are upset with this. It was not an easy decision. Ultimately, the team made the correct decision here. So what we can do is move forward, focus on giving customers the most stable and reliable platform."

#Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev doubles down that the credit lines "was really a proactive measure. As I mentioned earlier in the conversation, the deposit requirements that we have at the various clearinghouses govern how much we can allow customers to buy some of these stocks."

Sorkin closes by asking what'll happen if the level of buying again pops up and they decided to act.

#Robinhood CEO: "We're doing a lot of things we want to obviously allow buying safely for the firm and for the customers...We should have been out there a little bit sooner."

And that was the end of the interview. I neglected to include the intro from Sorkin, but that's not what anyone's interested in.

Otherwise, what's tweeted is the interview in its entirety (besides whatever else they might be taping for Friday's 'Squawk Box').

/END