BNB Chain pursues legal action after ex-employee’s memecoin launchBNB Chain said a former employee allegedly used a company tutorial wallet to create a memecoin that the company says it did not authorize or endorse.

BNB Chain, the blockchain network behind the BNB cryptocurrency, announced it is taking legal action after a former employee allegedly misused a company tutorial wallet to launch an unauthorized memecoin. The wallet in question was originally created for a video tutorial demonstrating how to launch tokens on BNB Chain. According to the company, this former employee retained access to the wallet’s seed phrase after leaving BNB Chain and used it to create a new token without the company's authorization or endorsement.

Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain provided additional details, claiming the ex-employee deployed a meme token called Asteroid Shiba (ASTEROID). Lookonchain reported that four newly created wallets purchased 796.7 million ASTEROID tokens, which represented 79.67% of the total supply. Subsequently, these wallets sold 718.8 million tokens for 1,103 BNB, roughly valued at $638,000 at the time of the transaction.

BNB Chain emphasized that it had no role in creating, authorizing, or promoting the token and stated it does not control the token or associated wallet addresses. Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, Binance’s founder and former CEO, echoed BNB Chain’s statement on social media, calling the former employee “basically a scammer” and advised the community to “Stay SAFU,” a phrase advising users to stay safe and cautious. The matter highlights challenges related to security and internal controls within blockchain organizations.