Robinhood CEO's Account Hacked for Fake VLAD Memecoin Scam

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X account was hacked on Thursday to promote a fake memecoin called VLAD. The attackers claimed the token would be listed on the Robinhood app, causing the price to briefly surge in value.

The post reached over 175,000 views within 20 minutes before users flagged it as a scam. Robinhood quickly removed the post and confirmed that Tenev's account had been hacked.

The hackers made around $1.2 million to $1.3 million by selling VLAD tokens after promoting them with false information about official backing from Tenev. The token was later labeled as a scam on blockchain explorers, and its market capitalization quickly collapsed.

Roughly 70% of the token supply was controlled by early wallets, which cashed out around 650 ETH worth $1.2 million to $1.3 million. Robinhood Chain's rapid growth has attracted many speculators, with over $750 million in assets already on the network since its July 1 launch.

The incident follows a familiar pattern of crypto scams, where hackers compromise verified social media accounts and promote fake tokens using the account's credibility.