The social media accounts of traders, rappers, and even Caitlyn Jenner are touting tokens in what many believe is part of an orchestrated chain of hacks. One Memecoin called Normie (NORMIE) suffered a catastrophic hack that caused it to lose more than 99% of its value in a single day.
A number of crypto industry influencers and celebrities had their X accounts hacked over the weekend, promoting everything from Luna2 and ORDI to celebrity-inspired Memecoins.
Among the latest victims is Gigantic-Cassocked-Rebirth, known as GCR, a pseudonymous cryptocurrency investor known for profiting from contrarian trading, who confirmed that his X account was hacked. GCR’s X account posted about ORDI and Luna2.0 on May 26th, causing both tokens to spike 6% and 274%, respectively.
Many commented that the hacker could have used the account to promote a mid-cap coin, but instead chose to post about the two tokens, resulting in limited gains. “The GCR hacker blew a huge opportunity,” said cryptocurrency analyst Miles Deutscher.
“The guy could have picked ANY credible microcap to increase its value 10-20x, but he chose to promote ORDI and LUNA2 for a paltry 10% wick,” he added.
The GCR hack could be just a small part of a broader attack on celebrity X accounts, the community warns. “GCR told us earlier today that there is an operation underway to hack major Twitter accounts,” revealed Udi Wertheimer, bitcoin developer and Ordinals commentator.
CAUTION: Suspicious Memecoin Launches by Two Celebrities
The X account of US rapper “Rich The Kid” (Dimitri Leslie Roger) posted a link for his 2.3 million followers to purchase the new “RICH” token, which was launched on Solana using the memecoin creation tool pump.fun.
No statement has been made confirming that Rich The Kid’s X account was hacked, but the post has been removed.
At about the same time, a new memecoin called “JENNER” was promoted by the X account of American media personality Caitlyn Jenner, which has already accumulated a market capitalization of USD 4.7 million since its launch about four hours ago, according to DEX Screener.
The JENNER token was also published on pump.fun. Interestingly, the cryptocurrency wallet released by Jenner is the same wallet released by Kazumi, which was hacked on May 20 while promoting the “ZUMI” coin.
NORMIE: Investment Falls from $1.16m to $150
According to blockchain data provider Lookonchain, an investor’s substantial investment in NORMIE has been drastically reduced. The investor spent $1.16 million to buy 11.23 million NORMIE tokens at $0.1035 each between March 25 and April 9, but due to the hack, the value of those assets is now less than $150. The investor has not sold any of the tokens since the purchase, resulting in a significant financial loss.
The team behind the Base-based Normie memecoin began negotiations with the hacker to recover 90% of the stolen funds. The attack, which exploited a vulnerability in the smart contract, caused the token’s market value to plummet by $41.7 million in three hours. Although the price of the token has fallen 96% since the attack, the agreement with the hacker includes the return of 90% of the stolen NORMIE tokens.
Normie’s team recognized the need for a reboot after regaining control of their main X accounts and securing the funds from the hacker. The hacker insisted on a token reboot before returning the stolen funds, adding another layer of complexity to the recovery process.
By Leonardo Perez
