Hackers exploited dogwifhat’s X account to promote Solana-based tokens, raising concerns about crypto security.
Crypto scams continue to rise as bad actors deceive people by impersonating prominent figures or exchanges. A recent example is the hacking of the popular Solana-based meme coin dogwifhat’s X account.
In a now-deleted post, the attacker, after gaining access to dogwifhat’s X account, began promoting various meme coins to lure people into purchasing several tokens. The meme coins posted included Popwifnut (POPWNUT), Muu (MUU), and DogWifDoge (WIFD). The hackers even shared contract addresses for each token, hoping to leverage the account’s influence to drive up demand and, consequently, the price of the tokens.
The first token posted was MUU, a coin barely a month old. By using the identity of a notable meme coin page, MUU saw a rapid surge, reaching an all-time high. However, this surge was brief. The attackers soon sold off their holdings, causing the price to collapse and leaving investors at a loss.
A similar fate befell the other tokens, POPWNUT and WIFD. Each saw initial price spikes, only to later plummet by 84% and 74%, respectively, at the time of writing, as a result of the scam.
Community and Security Teams Respond to Limit Damage
The unusual post was quickly noticed by the community members, who suspected a compromise. Also, the Web3 security firm Harpie confirmed the account hijacking and urged followers to avoid engaging with the posts, helping to limit the extent of the scam. The dogwifhat development team ultimately regained access to the account, deleted all traces of the attackers’ posts, and restored the account’s original profile.
Despite this incident, the price of WIF (dogwifhat’s token) was only slightly affected, declining by just over 12% in the past 24 hours, a drop that could be attributed to a 3% decline in Bitcoin over the same period.
dogwifhat had recently celebrated a major milestone as WIF WIF $0.65 24h volatility: 4.4% Market cap: $649.15 M Vol. 24h: $246.76 M was listed on Coinbase, helping the token surpass $4 for the first time since April.
The Growing Threat of Account Hijacking in Crypto
This recent attack is not isolated. Scammers have been increasingly targeting the X accounts of prominent figures, using them to promote fraudulent schemes that deceive crypto investors. In September, scammers hijacked the X account of Delhi Capitals to promote fake Solana-based tokens and deceive crypto investors.
The fraudulent token had the ticker HACKER. Similarly, the X account of popular French football player Kylian Mbappé was taken over by a bad actor to market a fake token called $MBAPPE, leading to investors losing $1 million in just one hour after falling into the pump and dump scheme.
The dogwifhat incident serves as a stark reminder of the dangers crypto investors face from hijacked social media accounts. As scammers grow more sophisticated, users must remain vigilant, question unusual posts from trusted accounts, and rely on credible security warnings to avoid falling prey to these schemes.
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