Hackers took over 50 Cent's X account to promote a memecoin scam

By Hannah Perez

50 Cent denied being involved with the GUNIT token, which skyrocketed in price before crashing in what clearly appears to be a pump and dump attack.

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Rapper 50 Cent claims to have been the victim of an attack that promoted a fraudulent token
Hackers promoted GUNIT, a token that skyrocketed in price and then crashed
It’s the latest celebrity token to emerge in the memecoin space

Rapper Curtis Jackson III, better known as 50 Cent, became the victim of a hack on social networks that led to the promotion of a memecoin fraudulent.

The 48-year-old celebrity said in a publication on instagram that malicious actors had taken over your account x (previously Twitter) to promote a meme cryptocurrency called “GUNIT”, a project based on Solarium with which the rapper denied any type of link or association.

The project seems to refer to G-Unita clothing brand owned by 50 Cent. G-Unit It was initially an American hip hop musical group in which the rapper participated. It was also a record label that he founded in 2003.

As in other similar cases, the exploiters would have taken advantage of the artist’s popularity on social networks to attract hundreds of followers to buy the token. They would then have performed what is known in cryptocurrencies as a “pump and dump” attack followed by a “rug pull,” which translates to “rug pull” in Spanish.

In a pump and dump attack the creators of a token artificially inflate its price in order to sell at higher prices. It is usually followed by a rug-pulling scheme, in which scammers collect money from investors and then abruptly abandon it, leaving participants with losses.

“My Twitter & Thisis 50.com was hacked I have no association with this Crypto. Twitter worked quickly to lock my account back down“He wrote to his more than 32 million followers on instagram.

He added that the person responsible for the attack would have supposedly earned USD $300 million in 30 minutes, a figure that does not seem to coincide with the on-chain data, as he noted. Cointelegraph.

At the time of editing, a publication in x The fraudulent project is still published on 50 Cent’s official account, which has almost 13 million followers. “Get rich or die trying“says that publication, along with a link to the GUNIT token.

The data from DEX Screener show that GUNIT had a wild price swing on Thursday, rising in value before crashing to USD$0.00016. He token It has a commercial volume of USD $19.7 million in the last 24 hours, of which almost USD $10 million have been sales. Its market capitalization is just over USD $300,000.

Celebrity meme tokens

The event comes at a time of rise of celebrity memecoins.

A bunch of tokens inspired by Trump and Biden have appeared on different networks Blockchain in the midst of the election campaign in the US. Recently, a token in particular called “DJT” (Trump’s followers) generated controversy when it was said that he was directly linked to the former president. Martin Shkreli, also known as “Pharma Bro,” said it was launched with the consent of Donald Trump’s son, although the politician later denied having been involved.

Caitlyn Jenner too caused confusion within the cryptocurrency industry due to contradictory messages after the launch of its own token JENNER, which it defended although it claimed not to have been involved.

Australian rapper Iggy Azalea also surprised her fans recently when she released her own memecoin MOTHER, a project that initially started as a form of fun, but has since been promoted as a token with potential use cases.

Article by Hannah Estefanía Pérez / DailyBitcoin

Picture of Unsplash

WARNING: This is an informative article. DiarioBitcoin is a media outlet, it does not promote, endorse or recommend any particular investment. It is worth noting that investments in cryptoassets are not regulated in some countries. They may not be suitable for retail investors as the entire amount invested could be lost. Check the laws of your country before investing.