Investor’s $1M MBAPPE Bet Crashes in an Hour After Kylian Mbappé X Account Hack
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A cryptocurrency investor lost over $1 million in just an hour on Thursday after buying a dubious meme coin called $MBAPPE. The coin was falsely promoted through French soccer star Kylian Mbappé’s hacked X account.
According to analytics firm Lookonchain, the investor created a new wallet and invested 7,156 $SOL, worth $1.03 million, into the $MBAPPE token in a single transaction. However, the investment’s value has since dropped to just $9.2K.
$MBAPPE Token’s Brief Surge Quickly Turns into a Crash
Hackers took control of French footballer Kylian Mbappe’s X account on Thursday, using it to post multiple promotions for the cryptocurrency ‘$MBAPPE’ that uses Solana-based memecoin deployer Pump.fun. This platform has gained popularity for its simplicity. It offers a cost-effective way for users to create and launch their meme coins with just a few clicks.
Several users observed that the ‘MBAPPE’ token quickly spiked and then plummeted within minutes. They pointed out that the posts remained on Mbappe’s profile at the time. Some speculated whether the posts resulted from a hack, or if Mbappe himself was involved in promoting the token. The posts have since been deleted.
Chinese journalist Colin Wu reported that a user invested 2 SOL, about $286, into the token and then sold it at its peak, securing a profit of around 1,398 SOL, or about $200,000.
Scammers Previously Exploited Footballer’s Image in Crypto Scams
In 2019 and 2020, scammers misused the renowned footballer’s identity for crypto scams. They used his image in online ads, promoting cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, to lure investors with false promises of quick profits.
In response, Mbappe took legal action against the unauthorized use of his identity. Meanwhile, the Financial Markets Authority of France recorded over 1,100 similar scam complaints in 2018, leading to losses of 55.5 million euros for the victims.
