Hacking Incident Involving Celebrity Instagram Accounts
In a troubling incident late Thursday, the Instagram profiles of renowned artists such as Adele, Future, Tyla, and even the late Michael Jackson fell victim to hackers who exploited their influence to promote a non-affiliated meme cryptocurrency tied to Solana.
Details of the Attack
The perpetrators utilized these high-profile accounts to post images, including an AI-generated depiction of Future, depicted with a massive coin marked ‘FREEBANDZ’. This branding is linked to Future’s clothing line and record label but bears no actual connection to the coin being hawked.
Notably, Future’s own Instagram account has since been deactivated, and at first glance, the cryptocurrency appears to hold no authentic ties to him or his brand. The meme coin was launched via the popular Solana platform, Pump.fun, and it momentarily achieved a staggering market cap close to $900,000 before experiencing a catastrophic drop of nearly 98%, plummeting to just $20,000.
Consequences of the Scam
This sudden crash was largely attributed to the token’s creator, identified by a Solana address ending in “zcmPHn”, who sold off an astonishing 700 million tokens—accounting for 70% of the total supply—in a single transaction, leading to a dramatic price collapse.
As a result of this manipulation, the individual behind the operation profited handsomely, pocketing approximately 251.57 SOL, which translates to over $49,000 at current Solana valuations.
Broader Implications
While these fraudulent posts have since been removed, none of the involved celebrities have made any statements regarding the breach on their Instagram or X accounts as of Friday afternoon.
This incident underscores a troubling trend in which high-profile social media accounts are hacked to promote dubious meme coins and various other crypto scams. Earlier this year, a similar attack on the UFC’s official Instagram account resulted in a staggering loss of $1.4 million for unsuspecting crypto investors. Additionally, the account of the viral ‘Chill Guy’ character faced repeated hacks following a Solana meme coin’s surge to a $650 million market cap.
Notorious figures like Barack Obama and Elon Musk have also fallen prey to such malicious exploits. In these schemes, malicious actors typically leverage the popularity of well-known accounts to artificially inflate the value of cryptocurrencies before selling off their holdings and causing a swift price decline—a tactic widely recognized as a pump-and-dump scheme.
