Robinhood CEO X Account Hacked To Push Fake Vlad Memecoin

Fake Token Promoted as Official Robinhood Chain Mascot

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's (@vladtenev) X account was compromised on Thursday in a scheme to promote a fraudulent memecoin called Vladhood ($VLAD). The bogus post pitched the token as the "official mascot of Robinhood Chain" and falsely claimed it was slated for a listing on the Robinhood app, a hook designed to lend the scheme legitimacy through Tenev's verified profile.

The post attracted more than 175,000 views in under 20 minutes before users began flagging it as a scam. The memecoin was created just minutes before the post went live. It surged to a peak market cap of around $10 million, and according to on-chain monitoring, the attacker generated around 650 ETH in proceeds, worth approximately $1.2 million to $1.3 million.

The blockchain explorer for Robinhood Chain flagged the token's contract address as a "potential scam." The token changed hands roughly 1,868 times since launch.

Tenev Regains Control, Robinhood Warns Users

Robinhood's communications account confirmed the breach, saying: "Our CEO Vlad Tenev's X account was compromised and posted a fake promotion for a meme coin. We're working with X to restore access and the post has been removed." Tenev subsequently regained control of the account, posting "I'm back," and said the company was awaiting details from X to understand how the compromise occurred. He also clarified that Robinhood has not issued any coins or tokens and urged users to stay safe.

While Robinhood has expanded aggressively into digital assets, including tokenized stocks, crypto staking, perpetual futures, and Robinhood Chain, it has never launched a memecoin.

The incident is part of a broader pattern. High-profile accounts on X and other social media platforms have increasingly been hacked to promote memecoin scams. A fake coin named after Coinbase boss Brian Armstrong crashed earlier this month, a reminder of the risks tied to trusting posts from executive accounts.

The hack came as Robinhood's newly launched blockchain has become a hotbed of speculative trading, attracting more than $700 million in assets across stablecoins, tokenized stocks, and memecoins since debuting earlier this month. Early activity on the network has been dominated by speculative memecoins, and the chain has drawn its share of scams and rug pulls as a result.

Sources:
CoinDesk: Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X Account Hacked to Promote Token
The Block: Robinhood CEO's X Account Hacked to Promote Vladhood Memecoin
Yahoo Finance: Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev Hacked, Exploiter Makes $1.2 Million