The attacker relied on trusted corporate accounts to create instant credibility before quickly cashing out their token holdings.
A hacker made off with over $135,000 after hijacking the X accounts of SpaceX and Starlink to promote a meme coin.
The profiles were used to shill a Robinhood-based token that briefly hit a $2 million market cap before crashing to almost zero.
SpaceX and Starlink Fall Victim to Compromise
Screenshots circulating on social media show both accounts reposting content from the token’s profile, with the posts featuring a Sam Altman (SCATMAN) meme coin and tags claiming they were associated with SpaceX.
On-chain data shows the hacker created 10 trillion tokens and sold the entire stash, converting it into 59 Ether (ETH) worth around $108,000 shortly after the posts went live.
According to Lookonchain, a separate wallet linked to the attacker made another sale of 59.28 million SCATMAN tokens for 14.7 ETH, valued at approximately $27,000, bringing the total profit to roughly $135,000. The on-chain analytics platform also identified the two addresses used by the hacker.
Per GeckoTerminal data, SCATMAN’s market cap surged to over $2 million before being immediately rug-pulled. Meanwhile, both companies have since deleted the fake posts and regained control of their accounts.
Rug Pulls Remain Common in Crypto Space
Prominent social media account takeovers have become common in the crypto space, many of which have been used to pump and dump low-cap cryptocurrencies.
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For instance, Scroll co-founder Ye Chen’s X account was hijacked in January 2026, with attackers impersonating platform staff and sending phishing messages about copyright violations that tricked crypto leaders into clicking malicious links.
A couple of months later, Pepe creator Matt Furie’s account was used to promote a scam token. Around the same time, WinRAR’s official account was also compromised to push a fake Solana meme coin to its followers.
The most notable breach came in May when Keith Gill, popularly known as Roaring Kitty, had his dormant account breached. In this case, hackers launched Red Kitten Crew (RKC) on Solana and walked away with more than $600,000 in half an hour.
Each case followed a pattern seen in crypto several times, where influencers create hype, developers cash out, and retail traders are left dealing with losses.
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