In a shocking development, on July 23, hackers reportedly hacked Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood Account X. However, there are three unusual signals that confirmed the validity of this compromise.
Arguments supporting kidnapping
Initially, a post from Tenev’s X account announced the launch of a com. memecoin His name is Vladhood ($VLAD).
Described as the “official mascot of the Robinhood chain” and confirming that the token would also be featured in the Robinhood app, memecoin was quickly dismissed as a scam.
This happened mainly because, about two hours before Tenev’s post, ten wallets were funded via Relay.
Additionally, within minutes, these addresses purchased $VLAD, forming what investigators referred to as a 70% ownership pool.
Given the timing, it can be argued that a coordinated group may have known about the launch in advance. This is because the wallets were set up much earlier and collected the token before the public announcement.
Additionally, within minutes after the announcement sparked buying interest, these portfolios reportedly began selling their holdings – known as the traditional pump-and-dump strategy.
Combined, the pre-funded wallets, suspicious token distribution, and rapid sell-offs caused many to believe that Vlad Tenev’s X account may have been hijacked.
In fact, based on On-chain MLM monitoringthe attacker made approximately $1.2 million to $1.3 million from the VLAD token, which is worth approximately 650 ETH.
Robinhood CEO clarification
Acknowledging these kidnappings, and hours after regaining access to his X account, Tenev took to X and noted,
Robinhood market dynamics that served as the bait
This coincided with Robinhood’s newly launched blockchain, robin hood series, Which is witnessing rapid expansion and significant generation interest from investors.
According to Dion Analyticsthe network has raised more than $750 million in on-chain assets since its launch earlier this month.
As evidence of the rapid adoption, user activity has also increased, with the chain recording more than 300,000 active addresses daily and handling around 10 million transactions in a single day.
Needless to say, for this reason, many market participants initially found the appreciation of $VLAD credible.
More such incidents
As might be expected, such attacks are not unique and have occurred frequently in past market cycles.
For example, in 2024, X represented several famous individuals, such as 50 Cent, Doja CatSydney Sweeney and many others were hacked to promote scam memecoins.
Final summary
- The 70% ownership group of the memecoin $VLAD was one of the main signals to confirm the exploit.
- $700 million in on-chain assets and 300,000 daily active addresses were the reason users thought the launch was credible.
