Former BNB Chain employee launches memecoin and pockets $628K

A former BNB Chain employee secretly launched a memecoin through a wallet he could still access after leaving the company. Using four newly created wallets, he bought nearly 80% of the total supply for just $10.000, then sold those tokens for a profit of $628.000. BNB Chain says it has nothing to do with the token and is taking legal action.

In short:

• A former BNB Chain employee launched memecoin ASTEROID via a wallet with unauthorised access after leaving the company.
• He bought 79.67% of the total ASTEROID supply for $10.000 and later sold it for $638.000, generating a profit of $628.000.
• BNB Chain fully distances itself from the token and announces legal action.

BNB is available at OKX and Bybit.

How the former employee operated

According to BNB Chain, the original wallet address was created by the employee in question for a video tutorial. After leaving the company, he retained access to the associated seed phrase without permission. Using it, he generated a new private key and then used the address to independently set up a new memetoken.

On-chain data platform Lookonchain maps out the financial side of the story. The former employee set up four new wallets and used them to buy a total of 796.7 million ASTEROID tokens, equal to 79.67% of the entire supply, for $10.000. He later sold 718.8 million of those tokens for 1,103 BNB, which comes to $638.000. His net profit therefore amounts to approximately $628.000.

BNB Chain takes legal action

BNB Chain states that it has no involvement whatsoever with the token. The company did not create, approve, promote or support ASTEROID in any way, and has no control over the token or the wallet address used. This is separate from all official BNB Chain activities.

The company announces it will take legal action against the former employee and is cooperating with the competent authorities. Incidents like this show how dangerous it is when seed phrases are not revoked or invalidated in time after employment ends, something also highlighted by other security investigations, such as a previously discovered security flaw in the seed generation of the Coldcard hardware wallet.