BNB Chain says former employee used company-linked wallet to launch ASTEROID

BNB Chain said a former employee used retained, unauthorized access to the seed phrase of a company-linked tutorial wallet to generate a new private key and launch the unapproved meme coin ASTEROID on Aug. 1, 2026, from a wallet address previously tied to the 2025 TST video tutorial. The network said it did not create, authorize, endorse, promote or participate in the token, has no control over the token or wallet address, has started legal action and is cooperating with authorities, but has not named the individual, jurisdiction, agency or court, nor said whether it is seeking recovery, damages or criminal charges. Lookonchain separately alleged that four newly created wallets bought 796.7 million ASTEROID, or 79.67% of the stated one billion-token supply, for about $10,000 and later sold 718.8 million tokens for 1,103 BNB, worth about $638,000, for an estimated profit of roughly $628,000; those wallet attributions were not independently verified. Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao shared BNB Chain’s statement on X, called the former employee "basically a scammer" and told users to "Stay SAFU." Earlier reporting linked ASTEROID to a sharp trading surge, but later coverage said several tokens share the name and BNB Chain did not publish a contract address, leaving market-price attribution uncertain.