The account of Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood, on the X platform was targeted by an attack on Thursday. The invaders used the executive's profile to promote the memecoin Vladhood (VLAD), presenting the token as an alleged official project linked to Robinhood Chain.
The post stated that Vladhood ($VLAD) would be the "official mascot of the Robinhood network" and claimed that the asset would be listed on the company's app. The text also displayed a smart contract initiated by 0x92d, encouraging users to access the token.
The content quickly raised suspicion because none of Robinhood's or Robinhood Crypto's official accounts published any similar announcement. The lack of confirmation reinforced the signs that the message had been published by third parties after the executive's account was compromised.
Suspicion increased when the Robinhood Chain explorer began identifying the memecoin contract with a "potential fraud" alert. At the time of publication, the token had accumulated about 1.868 transactions recorded on the blockchain.
The data also show that the cryptocurrency was created by a user identified as PonsLaunchFactory, responsible for deploying the contract used in the campaign. Despite the initial volume of operations, the asset came to be treated with caution due to the warnings displayed by the network's own infrastructure.
The episode comes just weeks after the launch of Robinhood Chain, a blockchain announced on 1º de julho. Developed as an Ethereum layer 2 solution based on Arbitrum Orbit technology, the network has been recording growth in trading activity involving memecoins.
Among the most traded projects is Cashcat, which helped expand activity on the blockchain. Recent data indicate that Robinhood Chain processes approximately 6 million transactions per day and has already moved about US$ 9 billion in cumulative volume on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), driven mainly by meme cryptocurrencies.
Before the incident, Vlad Tenev had already commented that the Robinhood Chain infrastructure was also suitable for this type of asset. At the time, he wrote: "while we are building Robinhood Chain to be the best blockchain for RWA... it also works very well for memes."
After the repercussions of the fraudulent post, Robinhood's official account confirmed that Tenev's profile had been compromised. The company stated that it was working to recover access together with the X platform and declared: "We are working with X to restore access and the post has been removed."