ZachXBT Links Social Media Hacks to $3.5 Million Celebrity Meme Coin Scam

Prominent blockchain detective ZachXBT uncovered a wave of hacks targeting popular accounts on X and Instagram, which fueled a wave of pump-and-dump schemes tied to meme coins launched on Pump.fun.

Celebrities such as musicians Usher and Wiz Khalifa, actor Dean Norris, and a Japanese public aquarium have been victims of these attacks.

Hacks targeting celebrities and big brands

In a detail thread on then fake tokens were promoted; and finally, proceeds from token sales were transferred to anonymous wallets.

Most of the attacks ZachXBT documented were linked, with funds from one operation being used to deploy and mint another fake coin that was used on a compromised social account.

Global fast food giant McDonald’s was among the first victims, with its Instagram account hacked and used to promote the GRIMACE token. This particular operation netted the bad actors approximately $690,000, which was quickly consolidated into two wallets.

Shortly after, the criminals compromised Dean Norris’s X account and used it to promote SCHRADER. The meme piece was a nod to popular culture, as it was named after a character played by the actor in the hit television series “Breaking Bad.”

Connected Operations

Eight-time Grammy Award winner Usher’s account was used to purchase the USHER coin, with 110 SOL used to draw it coming from the same address that received the funds raised in the McDonald’s attack.

The money generated by the USHER scam, approximately 4868 SOL, was then deposited into a wallet which was then connected to subsequent attacks on the social accounts of Enoshima Aquarium and Truth Terminal creator Andy Ayrey.

The attack on Ayrey’s account was particularly brazen. The exploiters promoted six different coins over several days, including RNA, TRUTH, INFINITY and WOAH. They allegedly won more than $2.1 million from these chips and deposited $750,000 of that amount at a casino.

The last recorded incident was on November 3, when Wiz Khalifa’s X account was compromised and used to promote two meme coins, WIZ and WIZZLE. ZachXBT directly linked Wiz Khalifa’s ATO to the Ayrey incident and another scam that took over the Instagram account of the owner of Kabosu, the famous Shiba Inu who inspired the Dogecoin brand and used it to promote the fake KAI token.

In total, unsuspecting investors are believed to have lost at least $3.5 million as social media platforms struggled to contain the damage. ZachXBT promised to reveal the identities of the people behind the compromises later today.