Robinhood CEO X Hack: Fake $VLAD Token Yields $1.2M in $22M Trading Frenzy

The X account of Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev was recently compromised and used to promote the fake memecoin Vladhood (VLAD), with the hacker making $1.2 million in trading fees.

Robinhood CEO X account hacked for fake memecoin promotion

On July 23, a malicious actor launched the VLAD memecoin on the newly debuted Robinhood Chain (an Ethereum Layer-2 network). He then promoted it on the executive’s compromised X page, calling it the “official Robinhood Chain mascot”. 

Within hours, the token’s trading volume surged to $22 million. Its price skyrocketed by over 90,000% to trade at around $0.0026. The contract accumulated 5,266 holders and 137,000 transfers on Robinhood Chain. 

In a typical rug pull, the hacker would have made away with all the liquidity, leaving buyers holding worthless tokens. In this scenario, however, the attacker launched the memecoin using the Pons launchpad. The platform locked all the liquidity but allowed any token creator to withdraw trading fees, which is what this hacker did. By repeatedly calling on the fee function, he was able to make off with 650 ETH (worth about $1.2-$1.3 million at the time).

The response

The Robinhood Communications X account noted the compromise within about 40 minutes of its execution, and warned users of the same. Shortly after, X deleted the post on Vlad’s account and the Robinhood Chain blockchain explorer labeled the project a potential scam. By then, several copycat VLAD tokens had been launched by mimic thieves.

Source: Robinhood Chain block explorer

Notably, Robinhood recently noted its inclusion of memecoins into its ecosystem alongside real-world assets (RWAs). 

Yesterday’s attack leveraged this announcement, alongside the memecoin frenzy and the platform’s low fees, to conduct the exploit. It also matched the July 12 hack of Starlink and SpaceX X accounts to promote another fraudulent memecoin that suffered a $2 million rug pull.