Celebrity and crypto influencer X accounts have fallen victim to a recent wave of hacks. The hackers have shilled everything from Luna2 and ORDI to celebrity-inspired memecoins.
Also Read: NORMIE Crashes 99.8% in Minutes After Devastating Attack
Historically, the crypto weekend is marred with negative trading sentiments. However, this weekend took the hacker’s path out. Market watchers witnessed a series of hacks that compromised several X accounts from crypto influencers and celebrities. The hackers went ahead to promote a number of coins, resulting in short-lived price surges.
Crypto Influencers Take Ls in the New Hack Wave
GCR was one of the most prominent targets. After the initial hack, the perpetrator was able to post promotional content on ORDI and Luna2.0, causing momentary price increases of 6% and 274% for the tokens.
So Sahil is paying managers to promote cryptos based around celebrities?
— Rory’s Moonshots (@rorysmoonshots) May 27, 2024
Let’s have a look at what he is behind and what has happened with these coins.
Market observers noted that the hacker could have chosen to promote a microcap coin for more significant gains but was not smart enough. ORDI (ORDI) has already amassed a market cap of $856 million and, therefore, has less upside than small-cap coins.
One X user by the handle @milesdeutscher states that “GCR hacker fumbled the bag hard. Bro could’ve picked ANY believable micro-cap to pump 10-20x, yet chose to shill ORDI and LUNA2 for a measly 10% wick.”
The community warns that the GCR hack could be just one small part of a wider attack on celebrity X accounts. Udi Wertheimer, a Bitcoin developer and Ordinals commentator, cautions that:
GCR already told us today that there’s an operation going on hacking big twitter accounts[…] As more niche celebs are popping up by the minute launching meme coins — on a long weekend when platform engineers are away — i recommend that you guys be very careful.
Udi Wertheimer
Apart from crypto influencers, the hack appears to be part of a broader operation targeting celebrity X accounts. Mumble rapper Rich the Kid and media personality Caitlyn Jenner also fell victim.
Rich The Kid and Caitlyn Jenner Tops the Celebrity Hack List
American rapper Rich The Kid’s X account shared a link for his 2.3 million followers to purchase the new token “RICH.” The token was launched on the Solana-based memecoin creator tool pump.fun.
Within two hours of its launch, RICH already amassed a market cap of $90,000. While no official confirmation of a hack has been made concerning Rich The Kid’s account, the post promoting the token was taken down.
Around the same time, a new memecoin “JENNER,” was promoted by the X account of American media personality Caitlyn Jenner. According to DEX Screener, JENNER has already amassed a $27.1M market cap since it launched about eight hours ago.
Also, the JENNER coin was promoted on Jenner’s Instagram accounts. The JENNER token was also launched on pump.fun. Note that the crypto wallet posted by Jenner is the exact wallet posted by adult content creator Kazumi. Her account was suspected to have been hacked when promoting the coin “ZUMI” on May 20.
Investigations on the Hacks Stall
Official investigations are not yet underway, but crypto detectives have played the part. One observer notes that The RICH, DOLL, and SOULJA tokens were also allegedly tied to JENNER.
Caitlyn Jenner’s manager believes pump fun deployed the token.
— Rory’s Moonshots (@rorysmoonshots) May 27, 2024
The deployer dumped all their supply for 40k.https://t.co/CTW3aQgn1P
This wallet was also involved in a Kazumi presale.
Another presale which looks like it didn’t launch…. pic.twitter.com/0hEPlpeC9C
No data regarding the threat actor’s identity has been disclosed at the time of writing. Additionally, no particular entity has claimed responsibility for the hacks. Whether these are connected or related to a singular hacker or group has not officially been established.
Cryptopolitan Reporting By Florence Muchai
