Drake’s X Hacked in Meme Coin Scam, Followers Duped in $5M Trading Frenzy
- The X account of Canadian rapper Drake was hacked over the weekend and used to promote a scam meme, resulting in his followers losing millions of dollars.
- The Solana-based scam token was named ANITA, a reference to Drake’s cartoon alter ego ‘Anita Max Wynn’: a reference to the rapper’s love of gambling (sounds like ‘I need a max win’).
- In the past few months there’s been a surge in celebrity social media accounts being hacked to promote scam tokens as the crypto market has started to heat up.
It’s been a rough few weeks for celebrity memecoin investors — first it was Hawk Tuah girl’s adoring fans who were seemingly swindled when she pumped and dumped her shitcoin: now, Drake’s legion of followers have learnt a harsh lesson on the risks of investing in crypto.
The Canadian rapper’s X / Twitter account was reportedly hacked over the weekend and started promoting a Solana-based memecoin called ANITA, named after the singer’s cartoon alter ego, Anita Max Wynn (a name meant to sound like ‘I need a max win’, a reference to his love of gambling).
Remarkably, in the short time the posts were up on his account, his 39 million followers traded millions of dollars worth of the scam token before they eventually wised up and stopped buying.
The X / Twitter account of the fake memecoin has now been suspended and the fraudulent posts have been deleted from Drake’s profile.
Advertisement
Related: Arrest Made in SEC Social Media Hack and Fake Spot Bitcoin ETF Post
Scam Took Advantage of Drake’s Reputation As A Gambler
The scam posts on Drake’s account took advantage of his reputation as a gambler, claiming the token was launched in partnership with the popular gambling platform, Stake. Confusingly for his followers, Drake does in fact have a legit partnership with Stake and the top pinned post on his X / Twitter account promotes the gambling platform.
The name of the token itself was also carefully chosen to mislead Drake’s followers. The rapper has a tour of Australia and New Zealand scheduled for next year named the “Anita Max Wynn tour” — some of his followers may have believed the token was launched to promote this upcoming tour.
According to data from DexScreener, there was a flurry of buying immediately after the fraudulent posts, with over US$5 million (AU$7.8m) in trading volume on the scam token before word got out that the token was a scam and cooler heads prevailed.
Welcome To The Bull Market: Celeb Crypto Scams on The Rise
There’s been a real boom lately in the ‘celebrity social media accounts being hacked to promote shitcoins’ space. Last month crypto investigator ZachXBT traced several shitcoins linked to numerous celebrity hacks to an Australian former pro eSports player, named Serpent. These hacks included celebrities such as Usher, Wiz Khalifa and Dean Norris (Hank from Breaking Bad).
Other recent high profile social media hacks linked to shitcoin scams include the Cardano Foundation, Cardi B, Doja Cat and Metallica.
Related: Cardano Foundation’s Social Media Hacked, Spreads False SEC Lawsuit Claims and Scam Token Alerts
A bull run appears to be an ideal time for scammers to come out to prey on crypto newcomers. As ever, furiously and indiscriminately clicking links to god-knows-where in search of fortune is never a good idea, especially when the crypto market is heating up.
Stay safe out there, degens!
