How Was The Tutorial Wallet Used?
BNB Chain said it is pursuing legal action against a former employee who allegedly retained unauthorized access to the seed phrase of a company tutorial wallet and later used the address to launch a memecoin called Asteroid Shiba, or ASTEROID.
The wallet had originally been created for a video explaining how to launch tokens on BNB Chain. According to the company, the employee kept access to its recovery phrase after leaving the organization, despite the deletion of the wallet’s private key.
BNB Chain said the individual “is no longer with the company as part of this incident” and that it is cooperating with relevant authorities. The company did not identify the jurisdiction, specify the claims it intends to file or disclose whether any assets linked to the alleged activity have been frozen.
Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao reposted the company’s statement and described the former employee as “basically a scammer,” while advising users to “Stay SAFU.”
The allegation shows why deleting a private key is not enough to disable a cryptocurrency wallet when another person still possesses its seed phrase. A seed phrase can regenerate the wallet and restore control over its addresses, allowing the holder to sign transactions from another device.
Why Was The Wallet Already Known To Traders?
The same wallet was previously used to create TST, a test token featured in a BNB Chain tutorial in February 2025. Speculators began trading the token after the tutorial briefly revealed its name and Zhao discussed it publicly.
TST’s market capitalization later exceeded $50 million even though Binance and BNB Chain repeatedly said they had not endorsed the asset. The episode showed how quickly tokens connected to recognizable wallets or company content can attract speculative capital, even when they were created only for educational purposes.
After TST gained attention, the tutorial was removed and the private key associated with the creator address was deleted. The address held about 0.13% of TST’s supply. BNB Chain now alleges that the former employee had retained the underlying seed phrase, which allowed the wallet to be restored and reused to initiate the ASTEROID launch.
The new token also appeared to copy the name of an existing project called Asteroid Shiba. The team behind that earlier project said the ASTEROID launched through the tutorial wallet was an unaffiliated copycat created through the Flap token-launch platform using a similar rewards structure.
Investor Takeaway
A token launched from a recognizable company-linked wallet may attract traders who assume the asset has official backing. Wallet history is not proof of endorsement, and control can persist when a seed phrase remains exposed.
How Much Did The Connected Wallets Make?
Onchain analytics firm Lookonchain said four newly created wallets purchased 796.7 million ASTEROID tokens, equal to 79.67% of the total supply, for approximately $10,000 shortly after the token was deployed.
The wallets were separate from the tutorial address used to initiate the token launch. They later sold an estimated 718.8 million tokens for 1,103 BNB, worth about $638,000 at the time, according to the analytics firm.
That would imply a profit of roughly $628,000 before transaction costs and any remaining token value. However, the public blockchain data alone does not conclusively establish who controlled the four purchasing wallets. BNB Chain’s statement confirmed alleged misuse of the tutorial wallet but did not publish evidence directly linking the other addresses to the former employee.
The concentration of nearly 80% of the supply in four wallets created an extreme imbalance between insiders or early buyers and later market participants. When such a large share can be sold into relatively shallow liquidity, buyers face a high risk of sharp price declines and limited ability to exit at displayed market prices.
What Does The Incident Mean For Token Launches?
The case exposes an operational security failure rather than a flaw in BNB Chain’s underlying blockchain. The central issue is how access credentials for company-controlled wallets were created, stored, revoked and audited after staff members changed roles or left the organization.
Organizations commonly rotate passwords and revoke account permissions when an employee departs, but cryptocurrency wallets require additional controls. A wallet cannot be secured simply by deleting one copy of its private key if a seed phrase exists elsewhere. Companies may instead need multisignature approvals, hardware-based custody, transaction policies and formal procedures for abandoning or transferring control of addresses used in public demonstrations.
The incident may also increase scrutiny of token-launch platforms that make it possible to create and distribute memecoins within minutes. Rapid issuance is not necessarily abusive, but it allows deployers to combine concentrated supply, coordinated purchasing and recognizable wallet histories before ordinary traders have enough information to assess the risks.
BNB Chain’s next disclosures will determine whether the case remains an internal access dispute or develops into a wider enforcement matter. Traders will be watching for details on the legal claims, the ownership of the connected wallets and whether any of the reported proceeds can be recovered.
