Key highlights:
- Vlad Tenevs X account promoted a bogus memecoin after a hacking incident.
- Tenev has since recovered the X account, but victims lost 650 ETH in the scheme.
- Last week Airbnb CEO Brian Cheskys X account was breached to promote tokenization.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev is the latest high-profile figure to suffer a security breach on microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter). While Tenev has recovered the X account, attackers seized the opportunity to promote a fraudulent memecoin, netting millions of dollars from unsuspecting investors.
Vlad Tenev recovers X account as investors bleed millions
On Thursday, Robinhood‘s communications team confirmed that CEO Vlad Tenev’s X account was hacked. The attackers pitched a Vladhood token (VLAD) to followers as the “official mascot of Robinhood Chain” using Tenevs official X account.
To lure in victims, the hackers claimed that the token is set for an imminent listing on the Robinhood app. Robinhood Chain block explorer marked the token contract as “SCAM,” but the attacker had generated 650 ETH valued at $1.2 million in proceeds from the VLAD token.
After nearly 10 hours, Tenev recovered his account and clarified that Robinhood has not issued any cryptocurrency tokens. The CEO confirmed that a postmortem is underway to understand the nature of the security breach and prevent future occurrences.
Im back.
We are awaiting details from the @X team to better understand what happened.
In case it wasnt clear, Robinhood has not issued any coins or tokens. Stay safe out there.
— Vlad Tenev (@vladtenev) July 24, 2026
Tenevs post drew criticism from diverse quarters for failing to address victims who lost funds as a result of the bogus post on his X account. Previously, Tenev has come under fire for turning off the buy button during the GameStop short squeeze in 2021, drawing public and regulatory backlash.
“Is this the response from the CEO of a $65B public company after his own account gets used to drain people on his own chain？” said crypto trader Ruslan Khairullin. “Nothing about the people who lost real money bridging to Robinhood Chain today because they trusted a post from your account.”
Crypto attacks on the rise as Robinhood surges
Pundits say the scheme garnered victims because of Robinhood Chains recent successes with memecoins. Since its launch at the start of July, memecoins have surged in popularity on the new chain with DEX volumes surpassing Ethereum and Base.
Vlad Tenev‘s X hack comes days after Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky suffered a similar account breach. In Chesky’s case, the bad actors did not promote a scam token but made a generic post highlighting the importance of real-world asset tokenization.
At the start of July, X accounts belonging to SpaceX and Starlink were breached, with bad actors promoting the SCATMAN memecoin. While X has rolled out new measures to combat account takeover, bad actors are relying on sophisticated methods to bypass guardrails.
Q2 2026 set the record for the most crypto hacks, but Q3 is on course to set a new peak for security incidents. Meanwhile, security experts say artificial intelligence (AI) tools are lowering the entry barrier for bad actors.