- Scammers quickly took over American R&B star Usher’s X account.
- Meme coin $USHER launches and rugpulls in under half an hour.
- Usher does not explain regaining account access.
The legendary American R&B singer Usher Raymond IV, popularly known as Usher, has become the latest celebrity hacking victim of the meme coin epidemic.
Hacker Offers Account Access for 2 ETH
A cybercriminal has illicitly seized an opportunity to bank on Usher’s trusting fan base and launched an $USHER meme coin on Solana’s PoS.
It took under 15 minutes for the counterfeit celebrity meme coin to rug, and many traders on X have questioned who the culprit was.
On-chain sleuth ZachXBT confirmed that Usher’s account was hacked. A hacker named Cin reportedly offered access to Usher’s official X handle for two Ethereum (ETH), worth approximately $4,696 as of press time. The blockchain detective provided a series of screenshots showing how the perpetrator was bragging about scamming someone out of the ETH, followed by offensive, racist imagery and links to their Telegram channel.
Celebrity Coin Rug Pulls Are Getting Intense
As Crypto Twitter boils with complaints and condolences to the traders who aped into this faux meme coin, the incident marks the 38th launch of celebrity tokens in the last three months. Aside from Iggy Azalea’s $MOTHER token, all the rest have rapidly plunged by 99% or more, leaving devastated investors with many questions.
Slorg, a popular Web3 analyst, discovered that Usher’s meme coin rug pull has been significantly faster than earlier ones, taking just 29 minutes from endorsement on the hacked X account to pulling out the liquidity. Previously, this record was owned by 6ix9ine, who envisioned himself as a rapper and jumped into the NFT train in 2022, not knowing how the non-fungible token market works.
“Bit by bit, people are slowly learning,” concludes Slorg, as the $USHER token fades away with just $18K trading volume over the last six hours, despite garnering nearly $2 million in trading volume minutes after the scam crypto was endorsed on X by the culprit.
On the Flipside
- Some crypto enthusiasts are guessing that Sahil Arora, an Indian entrepreneur turned rotten, is behind this meme coin rug pull.
- Usher’s account has been returned to its rightful owner, but the R&B singer has not commented on the consequences.
Why This Matters
Celebrity meme coins are a concerning trend across social media, as these projects lack accountability and are often endorsed by cybercriminals impersonating famous people.
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