Over 175,000 users saw a fraudulent memecoin promotion within 20 minutes after the Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s X account was hacked. The attackers used his verified profile to push a fake token called “VLAD,” complete with a malicious contract address designed to trap impulsive investors.
The scam moved fast. In less than half an hour, the post spread widely before users flagged it as suspicious. Onchain data provider Onchain Lens quickly reported the breach, and the Robinhood Chain blockchain explorer marked the token’s contract as a scam. Still, no official confirmation from Robinhood was available at the time.
Robinhood, known for expanding into various digital assets like tokenized stocks and crypto staking, has never created a memecoin. This sudden promotion from the CEO’s personal account was a sharp departure from the company’s usual communications, which helped alert the community to the fraud.
Such rapid exposure highlights the risks high-profile social media compromises pose, where the window between hack and detection can be measured in minutes. The incident follows a trend of attacks exploiting trusted accounts to push fake crypto projects, complicating security efforts across the industry.
Robinhood CEO’s Social Media Account Breached to Push Fake $10M Memecoin covered a related hack incident earlier this year, showing this is a recurring problem for crypto platforms and executives.
