American rapper and actor 50 Cent was recently at the center of a meme coin saga on the Solana network. The rapper refuted promoting the GUNIT meme coin, claiming his X (formerly Twitter) account was hacked by individuals pushing the cryptocurrency.

50 Cent revealed in an Instagram post that his X account was hacked while denying any ties to the GUNIT meme coin, which was promoted on his X account. He added that the hacker made $300 million from this elaborate scam. However, that looks unlikely, considering the meme coin’s liquidity and market cap before it was quickly discovered as a scam. 

Before 50 Cent’s revelation, many traded the GUNIT meme coin based on the belief that it was owned by the rapper. The rapper’s X account made several promotional posts about the GUNIT meme coin, which was created through Pump.fun. The crypto token witnessed millions of dollars in trading volume and rose to an 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 coin and promoting it on his account seemed like a real possibility, considering that a host of other celebrities have recently created their meme coins and actively promoted them on their X account. This includes Rapper Iggy Azalea, who created the MOTHER meme coin, which currently has a market capitalization of around $57 million. 

The posts made by the hacker were also well-planned and looked convincing, as some referenced 50 Cent’s cognac brand. Others also alluded to the recent happenings in the Solana meme coin space, including Martin Shkreli’s alleged creation of the DJT meme coin, which was believed to have been owned by former US President Donald Trump. 

50 Cent isn’t the first celebrity to have had his X account hacked in order to promote a meme coin. Earlier this month, wrestling legend Hulk Hogan also suffered a similar fate as he claimed he didn’t make the promotional posts from his X account, which promoted the HULK meme coin. 

Scammers are taking advantage of the celeb meme coin trend to create meme coins and give the false impression that a particular celebrity indeed created them. Although Donald Trump’s account wasn’t hacked, something similar happened with the DJT meme coin. It pumped on unconfirmed reports that Trump created it and eventually dumped after it was confirmed that it had no ties with the former US president. 

Generally, some, including Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin, have criticized the celeb meme coin trend, noting how they lack innovation and are simply cash grabs. 

Featured image from SecurityMadeSimple, chart from TradingView

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