Cointelegraph6 hours agoCrypto1 min read

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X Account Hacked to Promote Fake Memecoin

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Hackers took over Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X account, promoting a fake "VLAD" memecoin with a malicious contract address.
The scam attracted over 175,000 views, and hackers reportedly exploited 650 ETH, worth $1.2-1.3 million, with one sleuth identifying a wallet profiting from VLAD tokens.

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Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X account was compromised, leading to the promotion of a fraudulent memecoin and the exploitation of approximately 650 Ether (ETH), valued between $1.2 million and $1.3 million.

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One or more hackers took over Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s X account on Thursday after a post appeared promoting a fake memecoin called “VLAD” and included what appeared to be a malicious token contract address.

The post attracted more than 175,000 views in less than 20 minutes before users identified it as a scam and warned others not to interact with the token.

The compromise was reported by onchain data provider Onchain Lens. Robinhood Chain’s blockchain explorer has since labeled the token’s contract address as a scam.

Robinhood later confirmed the hack through its Robinhood Comms X handle. “We’re working with X to restore access and the post has been removed,” it said.

Onchain monitor MLM later reported that the hackers exploited approximately 650 Ether (ETH), worth between $1.2 million and $1.3 million, a finding that was also shared by Wu Blockchain.

An X user and online sleuth who goes by Jeff claimed to have identified a wallet address that appears to be linked to the hacker group. According to the user, the wallet spent $126.81 to purchase 47.2 million VLAD tokens. Based on current prices, they estimated the position was sitting on an unrealized profit of roughly $159,000.