American rapper and actor 50 Cent was just lately on the heart of a meme coin saga on the Solana community. The rapper refuted selling the GUNIT meme coin, claiming his X (previously Twitter) account was hacked by people pushing the cryptocurrency.
Hackers Goal 50 Cent’s Account To Promote Faux Crypto
50 Cent revealed in an Instagram publish that his X account was hacked whereas denying any ties to the GUNIT meme coin, which was promoted on his X account. He added that the hacker made $300 million from this elaborate rip-off. Nonetheless, that appears unlikely, contemplating the meme coin’s liquidity and market cap earlier than it was rapidly found as a rip-off.
Earlier than 50 Cent’s revelation, many traded the GUNIT meme coin primarily based on the assumption that it was owned by the rapper. The rapper’s X account made a number of promotional posts in regards to the GUNIT meme coin, which was created by way of Pump.enjoyable. The crypto token witnessed thousands and thousands of {dollars} in buying and selling quantity and rose to an all-time excessive (ATH) market capitalization of $6.5 million in slightly below an hour earlier than it was revealed to be a rip-off.
50 Cent creating the meme coin and selling it on his account appeared like an actual risk, contemplating {that a} host of different celebrities have just lately created their meme cash and actively promoted them on their X account. This contains Rapper Iggy Azalea, who created the MOTHER meme coin, which at present has a market capitalization of round $57 million.
The posts made by the hacker have been additionally well-planned and seemed convincing, as some referenced 50 Cent’s cognac model. Others additionally alluded to the current happenings within the Solana meme coin house, together with Martin Shkreli’s alleged creation of the DJT meme coin, which was believed to have been owned by former US President Donald Trump.
A New And Worrisome Development
50 Cent isn’t the primary movie star to have had his X account hacked so as to promote a meme coin. Earlier this month, wrestling legend Hulk Hogan additionally suffered an analogous destiny as he claimed he didn’t make the promotional posts from his X account, which promoted the HULK meme coin.
Scammers are benefiting from the celeb meme coin pattern to create meme cash and provides the misunderstanding {that a} specific movie star certainly created them. Though Donald Trump’s account wasn’t hacked, one thing related occurred with the DJT meme coin. It pumped on unconfirmed experiences that Trump created it and finally dumped after it was confirmed that it had no ties with the previous US president.
Typically, some, together with Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin, have criticized the celeb meme coin pattern, noting how they lack innovation and are merely money grabs.
Featured picture from SecurityMadeSimple, chart from TradingView