Robinhood CEO’s account was stolen! Meme coin VLAD stole 650 ETH

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s X account was hacked, promoting the meme coin VLAD, which gained 175k views in just 20 minutes, ultimately stealing about 650 ETH (about $1.3 million).
（Background: Robinhood was shocked by reports that 5 million users’ information had been hacked; but said there is no financial risk）
（Additional context: Robinhood’s founder live-stream leaked a seed phrase! Hackers pump meme coins, with trading volume surging to $20 million）

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• 650 ETH, worth about $1.3 million
• The evolution of the theft method: from exchanges to the CEO’s account
• The same risk exists in the Taiwan market

The meme coin promotion battle has spread to the CEO’s X account. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s account was compromised by an unknown person on Thursday, launching a meme coin called “VLAD,” which attracted more than 175k views within 20 minutes.

Onchain data intelligence firm Onchain Lens was the first to detect the anomaly, confirming that Tenev’s account had been hacked. Robinhood Chain’s blockchain explorer later also marked the token’s contract address as a scam.

Robinhood confirmed through an official account: “We’re working with X to restore the account; the post has been removed.”

650 ETH, worth about $1.3 million

According to a report by on-chain monitoring firm MLM, the hackers stole roughly 650 ETH, worth between $1.2 million and $1.3 million. Wu Blockchain also shared this finding.

Community detective Jeff further traced the hacker’s wallet address and found that the wallet spent $126.81 to buy 47.2 million VLAD tokens, with estimated currently held unrealized profit of about $159k.

The evolution of the theft method: from exchanges to the CEO’s account

According to data from Nominis, theft incidents in the crypto industry are shifting from large exchanges to phishing activities. Hackers no longer directly attack exchanges’ cold wallets; instead, they breach highly attention-grabbing X accounts via social engineering to achieve higher returns at lower cost.

This isn’t Robinhood’s first time this year. In early July, the founder of Robinhood’s live stream leaked a seed phrase, enabling hackers to pump meme coins on BNB Chain, with trading volume surging to $20 million at one point.

The same risk exists in the Taiwan market

Taiwan’s crypto community is also active on X. According to a 2025 announcement by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), Taiwan’s first batch of crypto exchanges is expected to launch by the end of 2026. Before exchanges begin正式 operations, understanding the theft methods of “meme coin promotion + phishing” is the most straightforward risk education for traders who are about to enter.