The multiplier

Robinhood stock tokens implement the scaled-UI extension drafted as ERC-8056. Balances are fixed-point and never rebase. Instead the contract exposes a multiplier with eighteen decimals: raw balance multiplied by it, divided by 1e18, gives the number of underlying shares.

function uiMultiplier()     view returns (uint256);  // 1e18 = 1.0
function newUIMultiplier()  view returns (uint256);  // pending value
function effectiveAt()      view returns (uint256);  // when it activates
function balanceOfUI(address) view returns (uint256);
function totalSupplyUI()    view returns (uint256);

event UIMultiplierUpdated(uint256 oldMultiplier, uint256 newMultiplier, uint256 effectiveAtTimestamp);

A dividend

Cash dividends are reinvested rather than paid out. The multiplier steps up by the dividend divided by the share price, so a token that was worth one share becomes worth slightly more than one. Apple’s multiplier is 1.000566080061092436 for exactly this reason.

A split

A four-for-one split quadruples the multiplier. CrowdStrike’s is 4.0. The share price quartered, the token price did not move, and a screen that assumes one token is one share now shows a premium of nearly three hundred per cent that does not exist.

Large multiplier changes are applied through a scheduled pause; routine dividend reinvestments are applied immediately by an automated process. Either way the token contract keeps no log of its own history, so the only way to reconstruct why a multiplier is what it is, is to reconcile it against the issuer’s corporate-action feed.

What it breaks