I think Robinhood is just a nasty arm of Apex clearing house. Lots brokers are under Apex. Apex is now fighting tooth and nail to stop letting some of their brokers let their investors direct register shares of certain stocks through ComputerShare.
Two likely reasons are 1) they don’t actually have enough shares or 2) they make money off lending away your shares for shorting. Especially your IRA shares.
Which is interesting….as they would have a fiduciary obligation to act in the best interest of their investors…all while undermining their own clients investments.
There is so much of a mess out there. It’s almost impossible to know where to start.