Audit log

Every state-changing event for Vladhood ($VLAD) Memecoin Scam: moderation decisions on community submissions, plus corrections and updates from the news pipeline. URL-based decisions are designed to carry three independent witnesses — the original source, an Internet Archive snapshot, and a Solana memo signed by our publicly-disclosed publisher key. Archive coverage is still being backfilled, so each decision below reports its own snapshot status rather than assuming one exists.

1. #1publishby system:backfill

   2026-07-26 17:17:06Z
   Score: ? → ? (no score change)
   anchorpending

   chain

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   hash

   E68XiEVBVCin…6kYhutQKcopysha256 → base58

   verifying row…

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   {"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"3e90422d-b161-418d-8186-38bc173cc6a0","kind":"publish","page_slug":"vladhood-vlad-memecoin-scam","published_at":"2026-07-26T17:17:06.181Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Vladhood ($VLAD) Memecoin Scam","sections":[{"content":"At approximately 17:24 UTC on July 23, 2026, unknown attackers gained control of the verified X account of Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev and published a post promoting a memecoin called Vladhood ($VLAD). The post falsely claimed the token was the 'official Robinhood chain mascot' and that it would be listed in the Robinhood app, lending the fraudulent promotion an appearance of institutional endorsement. The post included the token's contract address, beginning 0x92d176ccBeEffeCd8089e841D09ea17b6C22D969, deployed on the Pons launchpad via the PonsLaunchFactory contract. The post accumulated over 175,000 views within approximately 20 minutes before Robinhood's communications account confirmed the breach and had the post removed. Robinhood stated: 'Our CEO Vlad Tenev's X account was compromised and posted a fake promotion for a meme coin. We're working with X to restore access and the post has been removed.' The Robinhood Chain blockchain explorer subsequently attached a 'potential scam' label to the contract address.","heading":"Incident Overview","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO's X account hacked to promote Vladhood memecoin flagged as 'scam' — The Block","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/409560/robinhood-ceo-x-account-apparently-hacked-promote-vladhood-memecoin-flagged-scam"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X account hacked to promote token amid memecoin frenzy — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/07/23/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenev-s-x-account-hacked-to-promote-token-amid-memecoin-frenzy"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X Account Hacked to Shill Fake 'Vladhood' Token — Decrypt","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/374175/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenevs-x-account-hacked-to-shill-fake-vladhood-token"}]},{"content":"The $VLAD token was deployed via the Pons launchpad on Robinhood Chain approximately 46 minutes before the fraudulent X post appeared. A critical on-chain detail indicates premeditation: the token's official website field in the contract metadata listed Vlad Tenev's personal X profile URL at the time of deployment, before the account had been visibly compromised. This sequence demonstrates that the attackers had already secured access to the CEO's X account and planned the promotional post before deploying the token. The contract address is 0x92d176ccBeEffeCd8089e841D09ea17b6C22D969, deployed through the PonsLaunchFactory on Robinhood Chain, an Arbitrum Orbit-based Ethereum Layer 2 network that launched on July 1, 2026.","heading":"Token Deployment and Premeditation","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X Account Suspected Hacked as VLAD Token Exploiter Nets $1.3M — CoinEdition","type":"news_article","url":"https://coinedition.com/crypto-live-news/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenevs-x-account-suspected-hacked-as-vlad-token-exploiter-nets-1-3m/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO X Hack: Fake $VLAD Token Yields $1.2M in $22M Trading Frenzy — CoinPedia","type":"news_article","url":"https://coinpedia.org/news/robinhood-ceo-x-hack-fake-vlad-token-yields-1-2m-in-22m-trading-frenzy/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"The scam that doesn't rug: How $VLAD farms its victims — crypto.news","type":"news_article","url":"https://crypto.news/vlad-scam-locked-liquidity-fee-farming/"}]},{"content":"Rather than executing a traditional rug pull — in which token creators drain liquidity and disappear — the $VLAD attackers exploited an anti-rug feature of the Pons launchpad. Pons permanently locks a launched token's liquidity in a locker contract by design, which prevents creators from withdrawing the principal. However, the protocol allows token creators to claim the trading fees their pool generates. Attackers repeatedly called the fee-collection function as trading volume surged, extracting approximately 650 ETH (valued at $1.2–$1.3 million USD at the time) in aggregate trading fees. The $VLAD pool reportedly generated over $22 million in total trading volume with approximately 85,000 swaps in its main Uniswap-style pool on Robinhood Chain. At peak, the token reached an estimated $10 million fully diluted market capitalization. On-chain monitors identified approximately $59,000 extracted within the first hours of the attack, with total proceeds eventually reaching the $1.2–1.3 million range. A separate on-chain investigator noted that a wallet allegedly linked to an attacker spent approximately $126.81 to acquire 47.2 million VLAD tokens, representing a theoretical paper gain of roughly $159,000 from the token's price movement. These two figures — the $159K token-position gain and the $1.2–1.3M in extracted fees — represent distinct profit vectors.","heading":"Fee Farming Profit Mechanism","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"The scam that doesn't rug: How $VLAD farms its victims — crypto.news","type":"news_article","url":"https://crypto.news/vlad-scam-locked-liquidity-fee-farming/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Hacker Behind Fake 'Vladhood' Token Still Collecting Fees After Robinhood CEO's X Account Hack — The Defiant","type":"news_article","url":"https://thedefiant.io/news/defi/hacker-behind-fake-vladhood-token-still-collecting-fees-after-robinhood-ceo-s-x-account-hack"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Hackers Breach Robinhood CEO's X Account to Promote VLAD Meme Coin — Made Up to $1.3M — Bitcoin Foundation News","type":"news_article","url":"https://bitcoinfoundation.org/news/crimes-and-fraud-news/robinhood-scam-memecoin/"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Robinhood CEO's X Hacked: Fake VLAD Coin Nets $159K — FinanceFeeds","type":"news_article","url":"https://financefeeds.com/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenevs-x-account-hacked-to-promote-memecoin/"}]},{"content":"The $VLAD scam occurred against the backdrop of Robinhood Chain's rapid early growth. The network, an Arbitrum Orbit-based Ethereum Layer 2 designed primarily for tokenized stocks and real-world assets, launched on July 1, 2026. Within weeks it had attracted over $700 million in total assets, more than 300,000 daily active addresses, and cumulative DEX volume of approximately $9 billion as of July 23 per data from Entropy Advisors. Early usage was heavily dominated by speculative memecoin trading rather than the tokenized-asset use case Robinhood had promoted. The $VLAD incident exploited this environment: the chain's memecoin-friendly launchpad infrastructure, rapid user onboarding, and the halo of a recognizable CEO's name created conditions for a swift, high-volume fraud. Separately, Vlad.fun — a memecoin launchpad on Robinhood Chain unrelated to the $VLAD token — had already halted operations on July 16, 2026, citing a 'serious internal integrity issue' involving team members, illustrating that the $VLAD incident was not an isolated integrity failure in the Robinhood Chain ecosystem.","heading":"Robinhood Chain Context","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X account hacked to promote token amid memecoin frenzy — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/07/23/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenev-s-x-account-hacked-to-promote-token-amid-memecoin-frenzy"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood Chain Memecoin Launchpad Vlad.fun Halts Over Integrity Issue — CoinTelegraph","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/robinhood-chain-memecoin-vladfun-halts-integrity"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO's X account hacked in $10M memecoin scam — crypto.news","type":"news_article","url":"https://crypto.news/robinhood-ceo-x-account-hacked-in-10m-memecoin-scam/"}]},{"content":"Shares of Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOD) declined on July 24, 2026, the trading day following the hack. Reported declines ranged from approximately 2.78% to 6.57% depending on the measurement period and reporting source. Multiple outlets noted that broader technology-sector and crypto-linked equity selling contributed to the decline alongside the reputational impact of the CEO account compromise. The causal relationship between the hack specifically and the stock decline cannot be precisely isolated given concurrent market conditions. HOOD stock had been trading at elevated levels relative to historical ranges prior to the incident, partly on enthusiasm surrounding the Robinhood Chain launch.","heading":"Market and Stock Impact","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"HOOD Stock Slips Amid Robinhood CEO's X Hack & Scam Token Promotion — The Coin Republic","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2026/07/24/hood-stock-slips-amid-robinhood-ceos-x-hack-scam-token-promotion/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Why Is Robinhood Stock Falling on Thursday? — Benzinga","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/movers/26/07/60649896/why-is-robinhood-stock-falling-on-thursday"}]},{"content":"As of late July 2026, no public attribution of the X account compromise to a named individual, group, or nation-state had been reported. Robinhood stated it was working with X (formerly Twitter) to restore access and remove the post. No law enforcement action, SEC inquiry, or on-chain asset freeze had been publicly announced in connection with the incident. The Robinhood Chain blockchain explorer labeled the $VLAD contract as a 'potential scam' following the incident, providing an on-chain warning visible to subsequent users. The identity of the attacker wallet owners had not been publicly disclosed at the time of reporting. The fee-collection mechanism of the Pons launchpad meant the attacker's proceeds continued to accumulate passively as long as trading activity persisted, with no single on-chain event marking the end of exploitation.","heading":"Attribution and Response","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood Confirms CEO's X Hack Behind Fake Memecoin Post — CryptoTimes","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/07/24/robinhood-confirms-ceos-x-hack-behind-fake-memecoin-post/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Hacker Behind Fake 'Vladhood' Token Still Collecting Fees After Robinhood CEO's X Account Hack — The Defiant","type":"news_article","url":"https://thedefiant.io/news/defi/hacker-behind-fake-vladhood-token-still-collecting-fees-after-robinhood-ceo-s-x-account-hack"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X Account Compromised in Memecoin Promotion Scam — CryptoNews","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptonews.net/news/security/33193892/"}]},{"content":"The $VLAD incident follows a documented pattern of attackers compromising high-profile, verified social media accounts to promote fraudulent crypto tokens. The tactic exploits the institutional trust conveyed by a verified badge and the existing follower base of the compromised account. In the case of $VLAD, the use of a CEO account for a company that had recently launched its own blockchain amplified credibility by creating a plausible narrative — that a token might legitimately be affiliated with Robinhood Chain. The 46-minute pre-deployment window and the embedding of Tenev's X URL in the contract metadata indicate a level of operational planning consistent with prior sophisticated account-takeover campaigns in the crypto space. The Pons launchpad's fee-farming structure additionally represents an evolution from traditional rug-pull mechanics, enabling sustained extraction without a single detectable exit transaction.","heading":"Broader Pattern: Social Media Account Compromise for Token Promotion","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"The scam that doesn't rug: How $VLAD farms its victims — crypto.news","type":"news_article","url":"https://crypto.news/vlad-scam-locked-liquidity-fee-farming/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Vlad Tenev's X Got Hacked to Pump a Memecoin — The Defiant","type":"news_article","url":"https://thedefiant.io/newsletter/defi-daily/robinhood-ceo-hacked-memecoin-grift-still-running"}]}],"sources_used":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO's X account hacked to promote Vladhood memecoin flagged as 'scam' — The Block","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/409560/robinhood-ceo-x-account-apparently-hacked-promote-vladhood-memecoin-flagged-scam"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X account hacked to promote token amid memecoin frenzy — CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/07/23/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenev-s-x-account-hacked-to-promote-token-amid-memecoin-frenzy"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X Account Hacked to Shill Fake 'Vladhood' Token — Decrypt","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/374175/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenevs-x-account-hacked-to-shill-fake-vladhood-token"},{"credibility":2,"name":"The scam that doesn't rug: How $VLAD farms its victims — crypto.news","type":"news_article","url":"https://crypto.news/vlad-scam-locked-liquidity-fee-farming/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Hacker Behind Fake 'Vladhood' Token Still Collecting Fees After Robinhood CEO's X Account Hack — The Defiant","type":"news_article","url":"https://thedefiant.io/news/defi/hacker-behind-fake-vladhood-token-still-collecting-fees-after-robinhood-ceo-s-x-account-hack"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Vlad Tenev's X Got Hacked to Pump a Memecoin — The Defiant","type":"news_article","url":"https://thedefiant.io/newsletter/defi-daily/robinhood-ceo-hacked-memecoin-grift-still-running"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X Account Suspected Hacked as VLAD Token Exploiter Nets $1.3M — CoinEdition","type":"news_article","url":"https://coinedition.com/crypto-live-news/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenevs-x-account-suspected-hacked-as-vlad-token-exploiter-nets-1-3m/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO X Hack: Fake $VLAD Token Yields $1.2M in $22M Trading Frenzy — CoinPedia","type":"news_article","url":"https://coinpedia.org/news/robinhood-ceo-x-hack-fake-vlad-token-yields-1-2m-in-22m-trading-frenzy/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO's X account hacked in $10M memecoin scam — crypto.news","type":"news_article","url":"https://crypto.news/robinhood-ceo-x-account-hacked-in-10m-memecoin-scam/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood Chain Memecoin Launchpad Vlad.fun Halts Over Integrity Issue — CoinTelegraph","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/robinhood-chain-memecoin-vladfun-halts-integrity"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood Confirms CEO's X Hack Behind Fake Memecoin Post — CryptoTimes","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/07/24/robinhood-confirms-ceos-x-hack-behind-fake-memecoin-post/"},{"credibility":3,"name":"HOOD Stock Slips Amid Robinhood CEO's X Hack & Scam Token Promotion — The Coin Republic","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2026/07/24/hood-stock-slips-amid-robinhood-ceos-x-hack-scam-token-promotion/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Why Is Robinhood Stock Falling on Thursday? — Benzinga","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/movers/26/07/60649896/why-is-robinhood-stock-falling-on-thursday"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's X Account Compromised in Memecoin Promotion Scam — CryptoNews","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptonews.net/news/security/33193892/"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Robinhood CEO's X Hacked: Fake VLAD Coin Nets $159K — FinanceFeeds","type":"news_article","url":"https://financefeeds.com/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenevs-x-account-hacked-to-promote-memecoin/"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Hackers Breach Robinhood CEO's X Account to Promote VLAD Meme Coin — Bitcoin Foundation News","type":"news_article","url":"https://bitcoinfoundation.org/news/crimes-and-fraud-news/robinhood-scam-memecoin/"}],"summary":"On July 23, 2026, unknown attackers compromised the verified X account of Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev and used it to promote a fraudulent memecoin called Vladhood ($VLAD), falsely presenting it as the official mascot of the Robinhood Chain network and claiming it would be listed in the Robinhood app. The token had been pre-deployed on the Pons launchpad 46 minutes before the post appeared, and attackers extracted approximately 650 ETH ($1.2–$1.3 million USD) through trading fee collection rather than a traditional rug pull. No attacker attribution or law enforcement action had been publicly reported as of late July 2026.","timeline":[{"date":"2026-07-01","event":"Robinhood Chain mainnet launches as an Arbitrum Orbit-based Ethereum Layer 2 network, rapidly attracting memecoin speculation.","source":"CoinDesk","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/07/23/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenev-s-x-account-hacked-to-promote-token-amid-memecoin-frenzy"},{"date":"2026-07-16","event":"Memecoin launchpad Vlad.fun halts operations on Robinhood Chain, citing a 'serious internal integrity issue' involving team members.","source":"CoinTelegraph","source_url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/robinhood-chain-memecoin-vladfun-halts-integrity"},{"date":"2026-07-23","event":"VLAD token contract (0x92d176ccBeEffeCd8089e841D09ea17b6C22D969) deployed via PonsLaunchFactory on Robinhood Chain, approximately 46 minutes before the fraudulent X post. Token metadata lists Vlad Tenev's X profile as the official website, indicating the account was already compromised.","source":"CoinEdition / crypto.news","source_url":"https://coinedition.com/crypto-live-news/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenevs-x-account-suspected-hacked-as-vlad-token-exploiter-nets-1-3m/"},{"date":"2026-07-23","event":"At approximately 17:24 UTC, the compromised X account of Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev posts fraudulent promotion for Vladhood ($VLAD), calling it the 'official Robinhood chain mascot' and claiming it will be listed in the Robinhood app.","source":"CoinDesk","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/07/23/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenev-s-x-account-hacked-to-promote-token-amid-memecoin-frenzy"},{"date":"2026-07-23","event":"Post accumulates over 175,000 views within approximately 20 minutes. Trading volume on the VLAD token surges to over $22 million with approximately 85,000 swaps.","source":"The Block / CoinPedia","source_url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/409560/robinhood-ceo-x-account-apparently-hacked-promote-vladhood-memecoin-flagged-scam"},{"date":"2026-07-23","event":"Robinhood confirms the compromise via its communications X account. The fraudulent post is removed. Robinhood Chain explorer labels the contract as a 'potential scam.'","source":"Decrypt / CryptoTimes","source_url":"https://decrypt.co/374175/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenevs-x-account-hacked-to-shill-fake-vladhood-token"},{"date":"2026-07-23","event":"Token reaches an estimated $10 million fully diluted market capitalization at peak before declining. On-chain monitors report approximately 650 ETH ($1.2–1.3 million) extracted by attacker wallets via Pons fee-collection calls.","source":"crypto.news / The Defiant","source_url":"https://crypto.news/robinhood-ceo-x-account-hacked-in-10m-memecoin-scam/"},{"date":"2026-07-24","event":"HOOD stock (Robinhood Markets, Inc.) declines on the trading day following the hack; reports cite declines ranging from 2.78% to 6.57%.","source":"The Coin Republic / Benzinga","source_url":"https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2026/07/24/hood-stock-slips-amid-robinhood-ceos-x-hack-scam-token-promotion/"}]},"v":1}

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