Another high-profile attack on a celebrity has exposed a painful issue of security in the crypto industry. This time, the victim of hackers was Kylie Jenner's account on the social network X, which has 39.5 million followers. The attackers used it to promote a memecoin with the ticker kylie on the Solana blockchain, and this episode once again demonstrates how fragile liquidity and trust can be in the world of meme assets.
Bait posts and an instant surge in market cap
First, a post about trading appeared on the account, and then followers were redirected to a profile imitating the Pump.fun platform, called cutekjenner. The second message contained the ticker and the token's contract address. Before the posts were deleted, they managed to gather about 50,000 and 33,000 views respectively — that was enough to trigger a real frenzy.
The market reaction was immediate. According to aggregators, the token's market cap on PumpSwap soared to $1.19 million, and the daily trading volume reached $6.1 million. However, as soon as the posts were removed and the community suspected a hack, the bubble burst: the market cap collapsed by about 68%, to $378,500. Liquidity held at $58,900, and the token was distributed among roughly 3,700 holders. Note that several clones with the same name and image immediately appeared on the Solana network, one of which also briefly grew to $1.04 million before collapsing.
Systemic threat: rug pulls on celebrity accounts
This is not an isolated case, but part of an alarming trend. Scammers are actively using hacked accounts to promote fake tokens. In July, the accounts of SpaceX and Starlink became victims, advertising SCATMAN — the attackers managed to earn about $125,000. Later, the account of Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev was attacked, where through the token Vladhood the hacker made roughly $1.2 million. There were also cases involving the hack of Senator Cynthia Lummis's account and a fake DEAN launch on behalf of actor Dean Norris.
Such incidents highlight the critical importance of verifying information before investing. Even large accounts do not guarantee authenticity — always check contracts and official channels. My advice: if a token is promoted through a hacked profile, its fate is sealed — it is only a matter of time before the crash, and in most cases you will be left with an empty wallet.