Hacker Uses 50 Cent’s Twitter to Promote Solana Meme Coin – Here’s What Happened
Rapper 50 Cent, known as Curtis Jackson, has fallen victim to a hacking incident with his X account being used to promote a fraudulent meme coin based on the Solana blockchain.
The hacker took advantage of the ongoing trend of celebrities launching their own meme coins, leading many to believe that 50 Cent was genuinely endorsing a new Solana token called GUNIT, launched through Pump.fun.
The promotional tweets were elaborate, referencing the rapper’s cognac brand and mentioning other celebrity-related crypto projects, including Martin Shkreli’s alleged creation of an official Donald Trump Solana token and influencer Andrew Tate’s promotion of the DADDY coin.
One tweet even featured a meme with 50 Cent at the center, alluding to the Solana ecosystem.
GUNIT Surged 8,000% Before Crashing
While some users remained suspicious of the posts, others were initially unsure if they were genuine endorsements.
If you bought $GUNIT, then your $5,000 investment just turned into 50 cent. pic.twitter.com/1oA0pea2R3
— SphynxLabs fan $SPHYNX (@Ronald_Crypt0) June 21, 2024
Still, millions of dollars were invested in GUNIT within minutes of the tweets, driving its trading volume to $18.6 million.
The token’s value skyrocketed by a staggering 8,000% before quickly plummeting as liquidity vanished.
The incident highlighted the recent surge in celebrity meme coins created through platforms like Pump.fun, where the endorsement of a well-known personality leads to a surge in value.
Tokens like DADDY, promoted by Andrew Tate, and MOTHER, supported by Iggy Azalea, experienced significant market capitalization growth based solely on celebrity endorsements.
However, the GUNIT scheme quickly unraveled.
50 Cent took to his Instagram account to confirm that his X and website had been hacked, and the posts were not authentic.
X locked his account, rendering all tweets inaccessible.
As the truth emerged, GUNIT’s value continued to decline, but it still maintains a market capitalization of approximately $70,000, with new purchases being made.
Hacker Makes Off With $300M
In his Instagram update, 50 Cent claimed that the hacker made off with $300 million.
However, multiple data sources revealed that GUNIT’s market capitalization during its brief spike was only a fraction of that amount.
The disparity between a token’s market cap and the actual liquidity accessible to its creator became apparent.
The incident involving 50 Cent is not an isolated case during the ongoing frenzy of celebrity meme coins.
Earlier this month, wrestler Hulk Hogan experienced a similar hack, where his Twitter account was used to promote a HULK token that generated $82 million in trading volume within a day.
Cryptocurrency scams have thrived on X, with analysts attributing a significant portion of all crypto scams to scammers on the platform.
Scam Sniffer, a web3 anti-scam company present on X, conducted an analysis revealing that nearly $50 million is lost each month due to account impersonation on X.com.
While these problems existed prior to Elon Musk’s involvement in the platform, the confusion surrounding the new owner’s controversial paid verification service may contribute to the continued vulnerability of the general public to impersonation scams.
The service allows anyone with a smartphone to register and receive verification, potentially adding to the challenges faced in distinguishing genuine accounts from fraudulent ones.
Just recently, Binance co-founder Yi He raised concerns about the proliferation of cryptocurrency scams on X, questioning whether Musk would take action to tackle the issue.
