Celebrity Crypto Hacks: A Disturbing Trend Sees High-Profile Accounts Pumping Meme Coins

In recent months, the cryptocurrency world has witnessed a disturbing trend: an increasingly higher number of high-profile celebrity social media accounts

A recent trend in the cryptocurrency world has seen an increasing number of high-profile celebrity social media accounts being hacked to promote crypto assets and meme coins. These incidents have not only raised concerns about online security but have also shed light on the potential risks associated with the booming cryptocurrency market and the easiness with which digital assets can be minted for ill-gotten purposes.

The latest victim of this trend was Doja Cat, a popular American rapper whose X account was illegally used on July 8 to promote a Solana-based meme coin named DOJA. Boasting 5.6 million followers, many fans were surely drawn to buy the digital asset to support their beloved artist.

Once the hacker gained control of the account, the person or group proceeded to post a series of messages promoting the DOJA token. Some of the posts included phrases like “Keep buying DOJA”, “The real queen of Solana DOJA”, and “Buy $DOJA or else.”

In total, the hacker posted over twenty tweets and went as far as to delete the singer’s profile picture and bio – a move that rapidly evidenced that the account had been compromised.

Recognizing the breach, Doja Cat quickly took to her Instagram account, which has 24 million followers, to warn her fans about the hack. In an Instagram story posted on Monday evening (ET), she stated: “My Twitter’s been hacked. These messages are not from me.”

The token attracted significant interest from investors in the first hour after it was minted as evidenced by its market cap, which surged to $1.6 million initially. However, shortly after Doja clarified the situation, the value of $DOJA dropped to less than $100,000. Currently, the token’s market cap stands at less than $15,000 according to data from DEX Screener.

The Doja Cat incident is not an isolated case. Last month, the X account of the famous rock band Metallica was also breached and used to pump a meme coin named METAL. To gain the fans’ credibility, the hackers claimed that they were collaborating with Ticketmaster and Moonpay – a crypto payments platform – and stated that holders of METAL would receive discounts and perks.

Meanwhile, in an even bolder move, the hacker(s) hosted a Twitter Spaces conference to discuss the token and its use cases.

The crypto community rapidly recognized that something was not right and users started flagging the posts. Meanwhile, the President of Moonpay, Keith Grossman, took to social media to clarify that his company had not supported any campaign involving METAL or associated with the band.

The payments platform issued a direct warning about the scam later that cleverly referenced Metallica’s famous song: “Anyone offering the METAL token is not the master of puppets, they’re the master of scams.”

These actions did not prevent the token from reaching high volumes and a large market capitalization. Data from DEX Screener shows that METAL’s market cap quickly exceeded $100,000 but fell right after to less than $10,000.

The latest incidents involving Doja Cat and Metallica are just two in a growing list of public figures who are being targeted by scammers to exploit their following by pumping meme coins. Other notable cases include the former wrestling star Hulk Hoga, the American rapper 50 Cent, and the actress Sydney Sweeney, all of who experienced a breach of their social media accounts for this purpose.

Meanwhile, other celebrities like Jason Derulo, Iggy Azalea, and Caitlyn Jenner have launched tokens that they truly endorsed but they have been the subject of controversy amid their involvement with a promoter named Sahil Arora who reportedly scammed these and other public figures by helping them launch their tokens to then pull a pump-and-dump scheme by exploiting his access to a large percentage of the asset’s total supply.

These celebrities have been forced to explain to their fans what has happened to prevent those who fell prey to the scams take legal action against them. However, the fact that they openly endorsed the assets at some point still exposes them to being targeted by lawsuits from people who were unaware of what was happening behind the curtains.

The rise in popularity of the Solana-based meme coin minting Pump.fun has added fuel to the fire and has increased the risk of scams as hackers who gain access to celebrities’ accounts can rapidly use the platform to mint assets that can be used for pump-and-dump schemes and rug pulls.

Its user-friendly interface and low barriers to entry have made it a popular choice for both legitimate projects and criminals. Before this platform, developers had to put up a substantial amount of money in crypto to launch a token (mostly for the liquidity pool) but that is no longer the case.

The Pump.fun protocol has been a centerpiece of the proliferation of meme coins, many of which have little to no inherent value. When combined with the trend of hacked celebrity accounts promoting these tokens, the risk for unsuspecting investors is higher than

The above is the detailed content of Celebrity Crypto Hacks: A Disturbing Trend Sees High-Profile Accounts Pumping Meme Coins. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!