A wallet made for a BNB Chain training video came back to life. BNB Chain says a former employee still had the keys, and used them to launch a meme token nobody at the company approved.
The company is now suing that person. It says it does not own the token, does not back it, and cannot control the wallet.
How a Training Video Created a Real Wallet
It all started with a lesson. An employee set up a wallet address and made a token on it, all for a BNB Chain how-to video.
The token was a demo. It was never meant to trade. The wallet was meant to sit unused.
Then the employee left the company. BNB Chain says they kept the wallet’s seed phrase.
A seed phrase is a short list of words. Anyone holding it owns the wallet forever. Using those words, the former employee made a new private key, according to BNB Chain.
That is the risk. Staff leave, but the words stay in their notebook. Some wallet makers say seed phrase security risks are the biggest flaw in self custody.
BNB Chain Says the Token Is Not Theirs
Months later, the old address showed up again. This time it was tied to a brand new meme token. BNB Chain moved fast to deny any link.
“We are now aware that the same address is being used independently in connection with a new meme token. BNB Chain did not create, authorize, promote or participate in the creation of this token and has no control over the token or wallet address,” the team wrote in a statement.
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Why the rush? Because a meme coin’s price often rests on who is behind it. Traders on BNB Chain will pile into a token on the smallest hint of official backing.
That happened during the meme coin trading frenzy around tokens named after Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. He also had to shoot down rumors about BNB Chain meme coins earlier this year.
A wallet address can look like an endorsement. Often nobody at the company ever signed off.
“The guy is basically a scammer,” chimed CZ, Binance founder and former CEO.
BNB traded lower on Saturday. It sat at $579.62 as of this writing, down 2% in a day, with a market value near $77.2 billion.
What Happens Next
BNB Chain has not named the person nor the new meme token. It has not said where it is filing either. It confirmed only that lawyers and police are both involved.
The case is odd. Most crypto lawsuits deal with hacks or fraud. This one deals with a set of words an ex-employee never handed back.
Courts have barely tested that. A judge may call it theft. Or a broken contract. Or illegal computer access.
The answer could change how crypto firms handle staff exits, but in the meeting, the filings are what to watch.