American rapper and actor 50 cents was recently at the center of a coin saga on the Solana Network. The rapper refuted the promotion of the GUNIT meme, claiming that his X account (formerly Twitter) was hacked by individuals promoting cryptocurrency.
Hackers target 50 Cent’s account to promote fake cryptocurrencies
50 cents revealed in an Instagram post stating that his X account was hacked while denying any connection to the GUNIT meme coin, which was promoted on his . However, this seems unlikely, given the same coin liquidity and market capitalization before it was quickly discovered as a scam.
Before 50 Cent’s reveal, many were trading the GUNIT meme coin thinking it belonged to the rapper. The rapper’s X account has posted several promotional posts about the GUNIT meme coin, created via Pump.fun. Crypto Token Recorded Multi-Million Dollar Trading Volume and Hit All-Time High (ATH) market capitalization of $6.5 million in just under an hour before it was revealed to be a scam.
50 Cent creating the meme and promoting it on his account seemed like a real possibility, given that a host of other celebrities have recently created their meme pieces and actively promoted them on their X account. This includes Rapper Iggy Azaleawho created the meme coin MOTHER, which currently has a market cap of around $57 million.
The messages posted by the hacker were also well planned and seemed convincing, as some made references to the 50 Cent brand of cognac. Others also alluded to recent events in the Solana coin space, including Martin Shkreli alleged creation of the DJT coin, believed to have belonged to former US President Donald Trump.
A new and worrying trend
50 Cent is not the first celebrity to have his X account hacked in order to promote a coin. Earlier this month, wrestling legend Hulk Hogan also suffered the same fate. claims he did not post promotional messages from his X account, which promoted the HULK meme coin.
Scammers are taking advantage of the celebrity coin trend to create coins and give the false impression that a particular celebrity actually created them. Although Donald Trump’s account was not hacked, something similar happened with the DJT meme piece. He relied on unconfirmed reports that Asset created it and was ultimately abandoned after it was confirmed to have no connection to the former US president.
Generally, some, including Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereumhave criticized the celebrity meme coin trend, pointing out how they lack innovation and are just money grabs.
Featured image from SecurityMadeSimple, chart from TradingView
