American actress Sydney Sweeney’s X account was hacked to promote the SWEENEY crypto token, which appears to be part of a pump-and-dump scam.
One of the now-deleted posts from Sweeney’s account read, “Well I think it’s time. $sweeney is now live 100mc incoming.”
The token, built on the Solana blockchain, saw its trading volume surge to over $10 million within two hours of its launch on July 2.
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Despite the initial hype, SWEENEY’s price plummeted by approximately 90% in just over an hour after it peaked at 6:15 PM UTC. Its market cap now stands at less than $600,000, a sharp decline from its peak of $3.85 million.
A Telegram channel associated with the token, which was promoted on Sweeney’s X account, had an administrator who claimed responsibility for the hack.
In messages that have since been deleted, they also admitted involvement in recent hacks of rapper 50 Cent and former wrestler Hulk Hogan’s X accounts, which were similarly used to promote fraudulent tokens. Furthermore, they hinted at targeting another celebrity without providing specific details.
The hack is part of a trend involving celebrities in the promotion of crypto tokens. Media figures like Caitlyn Jenner and rappers Iggy Azalea and Rich the Kid have launched Solana-based memecoins with the assistance of memecoin collaborator Sahil Arora.
Among these, Azalea’s token, MOTHER, performed the best, reaching a peak market cap of $148.9 million. However, it has since dropped by nearly $100 million.
The pattern of hacking social media accounts to push questionable crypto projects remains a troubling trend in crypto.
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