- Fast food giant McDonald’s recently suffered a hack.
- The attacker made off with hundreds of thousands in profit.
- Solana memecoin shilling has been a major trend all year.
Hacks and scams in the crypto industry have become commonplace, with threat actors constantly lurking around, waiting to seize their next big loot. This year, rug pulls, one of their most weaponized tactics, have risen, marked by quick “pump and dump” schemes for sham tokens that have resulted in significant losses.
Now, these bad actors have taken their schemes to the next level, pushing the boundaries with their latest and boldest exploit yet.
Hackers Seize McDonald’s to Shill GRIMACE Token
Another controversial chapter has rocked the crypto industry, as a high-profile fast-food giant was recently hijacked and turned into a playground. In the late hours of Wednesday, August 21, 2024, McDonald’s official Instagram account was hacked and repurposed to promote a fraudulent memecoin named after one of its products.
GRIMACE, the sham Solana-based token, was first posted to the page with the caption “a McDonald’s experiment on Solana,” accompanied by a wallet address. The post quickly garnered thousands of comments from the page’s 5.1 million followers, the majority of which were filled with surprise, confusion, and concern.
Similar posts went live on the official account of the company’s senior marketing director, Guillaume Huin, with additional promotions of the memecoin based on the company’s viral purple-colored mascot.
The flurry of posts caused GRIMACE’s market cap to surge from zero to nearly $25 million, only to crash after the hackers dumped their holdings. To add insult to injury, the hacker altered McDonald’s official profile description to taunt their success with the scheme.
“Sorry mah n-gga you have just been rug pulled by India_X_Kr3w thank you for the $700,000 in Solana,” they wrote.
While the posts have since been removed, the incident has sparked significant questions, especially building on the ongoing controversy surrounding Solana memecoins.
Solana Memecoin Frenzy
The step-by-step process observed in the McDonald’s hack, involving promoting a sham project to a wide audience before executing a rug pull, mirrors the typical pattern in the ‘Solana memecoin saga’ that has rocked the industry all year.
Recent months have seen a surge in the use of the Solana blockchain for launching fleeting tokens by various individuals and entities, often backed or promoted by influential figures.
The frenzy began around June when up to 30 celebrities, including Caitlyn Jenner, Andrew Tate, and Soulja Boy, introduced their tokens. The launches were accompanied by aggressive promotions by the celebrities, ushering in significant investments from their follower bases despite the apparent lack of real utility.
However, while these tokens initially enjoyed success thanks to the promotions, most have since crashed, plummeting over 99% from their peak values.
On the Flipside
- Several community members have taken to X to report alleged losses from engaging with the fraudulent GRIMACE token and seek compensation.
- Some have speculated that the McDonald’s hack was likely an inside job.
- 22 out of the 30 celebrity-backed tokens now hold less than $1 million in market cap.
Why This Matters
The audacious hack on McDonald’s reflects the lengths to which threat actors will go to exploit unsuspecting victims, underscoring the need for investors to exercise caution before engaging with such promotions.
Read this article for more about McDonald’s metaverse ventures:
McDonald’s Unveils My Happy Place Metaverse in Singapore
HashKey Global has joined the list of exchanges to list Pepe and Notcoin; read more here:
Notcoin (NOT) and Pepe (PEPE) Score HashKey Listing
