Home/News/Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X account hacked to promote token amid memecoin frenzy

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X account hacked to promote token amid memecoin frenzy

CoinDeskPublished on 2 weeks ago

The post, now deleted, touted a token called $VLAD and falsely claimed it would be listed on Robinhood.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X account hacked to promote token amid memecoin frenzy

The post, now deleted, touted a token called $VLAD and falsely claimed it would be listed on Robinhood.

Robinhood said CEO Vlad Tenev’s X account was hacked Thursday after it was used to promote a fake memecoin called Vladhood ($VLAD) as the “official Robinhood chain mascot.” The fraudulent post falsely claimed the token would be listed in the Robinhood app and included a blockchain wallet address before being deleted. The incident comes as Robinhood’s newly launched blockchain network has rapidly attracted more than $700 million in assets and heavy speculative trading in memecoins.

Robinhood (HOOD) CEO Vlad Tenev's X account was compromised on Thursday and used to promote a fake memecoin as traders have piled into tokens on the brokerage's recently-launched blockchain network.

The now-deleted post introduced a token called Vladhood ($VLAD) as the "official Robinhood chain mascot" and falsely claimed it would be listed in the Robinhood app. It included a blockchain wallet address and described the token as part of the company's focus on Robinhood Chain.

"Does Robinhood love memes? The answer is yes," the post read.

Robinhood later confirmed the account had been hacked.

"Heads up: Our CEO Vlad Tenev's X account was compromised and posted a fake promotion for a meme coin," the company said through its communications account on X. "We're working with X to restore access and the post has been removed."

The incident came as Robinhood's newly launched blockchain has become a hotbed of speculative trading.

Since debuting earlier this month, the network has attracted more than $700 million in assets across stablecoins, tokenized stocks and memecoins, according to a Dune dashboard created by Entropy Advisors. The blockchain has also surpassed 300,000 daily active addresses and processed roughly 10 million transactions in a single day, the dashboard shows.

The rapid growth in activity has also fueled a wave of new memecoins attempting to capitalize on the chain's rising popularity.

1Tassat wants to help smaller banks tap the trillion-dollar stablecoin boom before Wall Street lock them out1 hour ago 2Coinbase's corporate customers can now accept payments from AI agents2 hours ago 3The SEC settles with Coinbase over its missing Gary Gensler texts3 hours ago 4Crypto for Advisors: It’s time for tokenization to get to work4 hours ago 5Uniswap pushes deeper into tokenized assets with permissioned trading pools5 hours ago 6Goldman Sachs CEO backs Clarity Act despite banking industry's concerns over stablecoin rules5 hours ago 7The KIDS Act is way worse than digital carding — it is a mass surveillance system6 hours ago 8BlackRock, Coinbase, Strategy in a new group pledging $15 million to prepare Bitcoin for quantum threats6 hours ago 9Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Capital joins tokenization push as Coinbase takes stake in onchain fund7 hours ago 10Polymarket to challenge France’s nationwide website block7 hours ago

Crypto Flows, Share and the Selective Rotation

Crypto Flows, Share and the Selective Rotation

Markets repositioned since June, but Binance held share (~55% user funds, ~24% spot) and drew net inflows in early July while the tracked market saw outflows.

Markets repositioned since June, but Binance held share (~55% user funds, ~24% spot) and drew net inflows in early July while the tracked market saw outflows.

Why it matters:

Markets repositioned since June, but Binance held share (~55% user funds, ~24% spot) and drew net inflows in early July while the tracked market saw outflows.

Tassat wants to help smaller banks tap the trillion-dollar stablecoin boom before Wall Street lock them out

Coinbase's corporate customers can now accept payments from AI agents

Uniswap pushes deeper into tokenized assets with permissioned trading pools