Robinhood Chain, the newly launched permissionless Ethereum Layer 2 network from Robinhood, faced a tumultuous first two weeks as two security incidents rattled early adopters. On July 13, a wallet linked to Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev became the focal point of a speculative frenzy after its mnemonic seed phrase was reportedly exposed during a livestream. The leaked wallet quickly became the catalyst for trading of a memecoin dubbed $1, generating over $20 million in volume within two hours on the fledgling chain. On-chain data showed thousands of participants swapping into the token before the address was frozen at the RPC level, blocking further transactions. Despite the freeze, some activity reportedly migrated to the BNB Chain, highlighting the rapid spread of the exploit.
In a separate but equally concerning development, cross-chain protocol Relay warned that buyers on Robinhood Chain were losing funds after purchasing tokens that subsequently “disappeared” from their wallets. Relay identified a spike in scam tokens designed to remove themselves post-purchase, leaving buyers with worthless holdings. The protocol stated that these incidents were not due to wallet or private-key compromises, and that balances of other tokens remained untouched. Relay is actively blocking such tokens as they surface and verifying assets it deems safe, but has not disclosed contract addresses, total losses, or the exact number of affected users. The warning comes just days after Robinhood Chain’s public mainnet launched on July 1, during a period of intense speculative trading that saw decentralized exchange volume peak near $400 million on July 7 and integration with Pump.fun on July 8.
Robinhood’s own scam guidance covers malicious contracts and rug pulls but does not specifically address tokens that vanish post-transaction. The dual incidents underscore the risks of permissionless token creation on a brand associated with a regulated brokerage, raising questions about user protection and the speed of frontend warnings before irreversible purchases. While Robinhood serves nearly 28 million customers globally, that figure reflects its broader user base rather than chain activity, leaving the scope of affected buyers uncertain.
