Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky Says X Account Was Hacked

Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said his X account was hacked on July 17, 2026, to promote cryptocurrency tokenization.

The incident highlights the ongoing vulnerability of high-profile executives to social engineering and account takeovers, which can be used to manipulate financial markets or mislead investors. Because Chesky is a prominent business leader, the unauthorized posts carried an implicit endorsement of a specific financial technology.

According to reports, an attacker hijacked the account and posted a thread of AI-generated comments. These posts focused on the tokenization of real-world assets, a process that involves converting ownership of a physical asset into a digital token on a blockchain. The AI-generated content, described as "AI slop," was designed to appear as though it came from Chesky himself.

The unauthorized posts reached a wide audience before they were identified and removed. Reports indicate the content spread to thousands of users ^[1].

Chesky said he deleted the comments once the breach was discovered. The hack appears to have been a targeted effort to use the CEO's reach to lend credibility to crypto-tokenization schemes. The platform, formerly known as Twitter, remains the primary site for these types of high-visibility compromises.

Airbnb has not released further details regarding the specific method of the breach or whether any other company data was compromised. The focus of the attack remained on the public-facing social media profile to maximize the visibility of the fraudulent financial messaging.