The post 50 Cent’s Twitter Hack Promotes Fake Solana Meme Coin: The GUNIT Scam appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News
Rapper 50 Cent’s Twitter (X) account was hacked on friday to promote the new Solana meme coin, GUNIT. Initially, it seemed Curtis Jackson, also known as 50 Cent, was launching his own token, considering the recent trend of celebrities endorsing meme coins. However, it was later exposed that this was a pump-and-dump scam.
Moreover, the hacker had cleverly framed the tweets, referring to 50 Cent’s cognac brand and crypto history, intentionally making the scam seem legitimate. As a result, there was a rush of investments into GUNIT, and the trading volume of takens witnessed an increase of 8,000% before crashing.
It’s Not 50 Cent Alone in the Trend of High-Profile Account Hacks!
The hacking incident of 50 Cent is a part of a larger trend. Recently, the chief scientist of OpenAI’s account was hacked and misleading information was spread that OpenAI was launching a token to bridge AI and blockchain. Similarly, Microsoft India’s account too was hijacked by crypto scammers posing as “Roaring Kitty” for promoting a fake GameStop crypto presale.
Hence, these major breaches reveal a disturbing trend where any verified account can be exploited in order to promote fraudulent cryptocurrencies, posing a crucial threat to the online crypto platforms.
What are the Risks and Precautions for Investors?
The scam was revealed as 50 Cent announced on Instagram that his Twitter and website had been hacked. He claimed:
“Who ever did this made $300,000,000 in 30 minutes.”
However, Twitter was prompt to lock 50 Cent’s account, displaying the hacker’s post as “inaccessible”. Naturally, GUNIT’s value witnessed a downhill, but it still maintained a market cap of about $150,000 since some investors bought tokens even after the scam revelation.
Overall, this incident is a proof of the risks associated with celebrity-endorsed meme coins. With this trend going, investors should remain cautious and verify the legitimacy of such endorsements in order to avoid similar schemes in future. In addition, cases like this also reinforce the need for strong authentication procedures for preventing such exploitation.