Recently, the official account #Instagram of UFC was hacked to promote a counterfeit meme coin on Solana. This led many investors to lose money as the token's price collapsed by 97% in just a few hours.
Hacker Profits 1.4 Million USD from Pump-and-Dump Scheme
Scam post on Instagram #UFC urging fans to buy UFC Coin (UFC) with an enticing message about strength, legacy, and accuracy. In just 41 minutes, the price of this token surged by 44.367%, pushing its market cap to 11.3 million USD.
However, when the price peaked, hackers dumped 40% of the total supply, raking in 1.4 million USD, causing the token's price to plummet to nearly zero. This incident left many UFC Coin investors empty-handed, including one who invested 74,200 USD but now has assets worth only 5,745 USD.
Buyer Mistakenly Thought This Was the Official Coin
Some investors claim they believed UFC Coin was real because Donald Trump had previously launched a meme coin on $SOL . A Telegram user shared:
"I bought because Trump's coin was initially suspected to be fake, but it turned out to be real. Unfortunately, I was mistaken this time."
UFC Confirms Instagram Was Hacked
Right after the incident, UFC confirmed that the Instagram account was compromised and the post promoting UFC Coin did not come from them. According to on-chain data from Bubblemaps, there are 19 interlinked wallets that controlled 40% of the token supply and organized this dump.
Efforts to Rescue the Token But Not Viable
Some investors are still trying to salvage the situation by urging the community to buy back UFC Coin. They are even attempting to contact Dana White, the president of UFC, to mention this token at the upcoming UFC Fight Night event.
Hacking Instagram to Promote Scam Crypto is Not Rare
This is not the first time a major brand has been hacked to promote counterfeit coins. McDonald's and several X accounts of executives have also been attacked by hackers to promote Grimace Token, allowing the perpetrators to make over 700,000 USD.
This incident serves as a reminder for investors to be cautious of obscure meme coins, even if they are promoted on official accounts of large brands.