On Friday, rapper 50 Cent's Twitter account was hacked. The hacker used the account to promote a new coin - GUNIT.
Initially, it seemed like 50 Cent was launching his own token. This was similar to what many celebrities do when endorsing meme coins. However, it later turned out that it was a financial scam.
The hacker framed his tweets as if 50 Cent was supporting the new coin. He referenced the rapper's brand of cognac and the history of cryptocurrency, making the scam appear legitimate. This has led to many people starting to invest in GUNIT. The trading volume taken increased by 8000%, but then a glitch occurred.
50 Cent is not the only one who has faced this problem. The account of OpenAI's chief scientist was recently hacked. False information has been circulating that OpenAI is launching a token to combine artificial intelligence and blockchain.
A Microsoft account in India was also hacked. Scammers were posing as “Roaring Kitty” and promoting a fake GameStop cryptocurrency pre-sale.
These cases show that any verified account can be used to promote fraudulent cryptocurrencies. This poses a serious threat to online cryptocurrency platforms.
Investors should be careful. The scam was discovered when 50 Cent announced on Instagram that his social media account X (Twitter) and website had been hacked. He wrote: "Who ever did this made $300,000,000 in 30 minutes."
However, X (Twitter) was forced to block 50 Cent's account, displaying the hacker's message as "unavailable." GUNIT's value plummeted, but it still maintained a market capitalization of around $150,000 as some investors bought the tokens even after the scam was revealed.
This incident is proof of the risks associated with celebrity-endorsed meme coins. Investors should check the legitimacy of such approvals to avoid similar schemes in the future. Moreover, such cases reinforce the need for strict authentication procedures to prevent such exploitation.
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