Social engineering in the cryptocurrency space has reached a new level: attackers gained control of Kylie Jenner's X account (formerly Twitter) and used it to promote a memecoin called kylie. The attack was lightning-fast and highly effective — the token's market capitalization soared to nearly $1.19 million before crashing by approximately 68%.
Posts from the account, which has 39.5 million followers, have already been removed. However, several tokens named kylie are currently trading on the Solana (SOL) network, all of them just a few hours old.
Deleted Posts Pushed Capitalization Above $1 Million
First, a post about trading appeared on the account, and then followers were directed to a profile supposedly on the Pump.fun platform under the name cutekjenner. In the second post, users were given a ticker and a contract address. Both posts managed to gather around 50,000 and 33,000 views respectively before being removed. The crypto community immediately noticed the unnatural presentation of information and suspected a hack.
According to GeckoTerminal, the token's capitalization on PumpSwap reached $1.19 million. At the time of analysis, it had fallen to approximately $378,500, with a 24-hour trading volume of $6.1 million. Liquidity held at around $58,900, and the token was distributed among approximately 3,700 holders.
Hacks Remain Fertile Ground for Rug Pulls
The deleted posts sparked a wave of new tokens. Traders created several similar cryptocurrencies themed around Kylie Jenner on Solana — almost all of them are worthless and have negligible capitalization. One such asset, with the same profile image, also grew to $1.04 million in capitalization. The rest range from $29,800 to $370,300. At the time of writing, none of them had been trading for more than a few hours.
Attackers are using the same tactics as in previous attacks. In July, hackers breached SpaceX and Starlink accounts and promoted the SCATMAN token, earning about $125,000. In late July, they targeted the account of Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev — the hacker earned approximately $1.2 million on the Vladhood token. Additionally, a fake cryptocurrency called USA was promoted from the hacked account of Senator Cynthia Lummis, and in January 2025, actor Dean Norris publicly stated he was not involved in the launch of DEAN after his account was compromised.
My analysis: This incident is another reminder that even accounts with millions of followers are not protected from social engineering. For investors, this is a signal: any coin promoted through hacked celebrity profiles is almost a guaranteed rug pull. Don't give in to FOMO, verify contracts, and remember: if a token is being advertised this aggressively, someone is already preparing to exit their position.