Robinhood CEO’s X Account Breached in ‘VLAD’ Memecoin Scam

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s X account was compromised Thursday after a post promoting a fake “VLAD” memecoin and a token contract address appeared on his profile. The post attracted over 175,000 views in under 20 minutes before users identified it as fraudulent.

An onchain data provider reported the apparent takeover. Robinhood Chain’s blockchain explorer later labeled the token contract address as a scam. At the time of publication, Robinhood had not confirmed the account compromise or outlined steps taken to secure the account.

The post included a token contract address and urged users to interact with the token. Community members and blockchain monitors flagged the message as a scam and advised others not to click links or approve transactions tied to the contract.

Interacting with unknown token contracts can expose wallets to risks such as approval permissions or malicious code that allow funds to be moved without the wallet owner’s intent. Security observers recommended that anyone who clicked links or approved transactions immediately revoke permissions and transfer assets to wallets secured with new private keys.

Robinhood has expanded into digital-asset products, including tokenized stocks, crypto staking, perpetual futures and its own Robinhood Chain, but the company has not launched a memecoin. That discrepancy helped some users identify the post as suspicious.

Security firms tracking illicit activity report attackers continue to use phishing and social engineering to distribute malicious links and trick users, even as the total value lost to crypto scams has fallen in recent months.

No official statement from Robinhood confirming the breach had been published at the time of reporting. Followers of company executives on social platforms were urged to verify unusual posts through multiple channels before acting on crypto-related prompts.