Musk’s SpaceX and Starlink Hijacked as ‘SCATMAN’ Memecoin Rockets to $32M on Robinhood Chain

A Verified-Account Playbook Strikes Elon Musk’s Companies

The compromise unfolded Sunday erstwhile some accounts, which beryllium to Elon Musk’s rocket shaper SpaceX and its outer net portion Starlink, began amplifying promotional posts for the token earlier the companies regained power and deleted the material. Onchain information level Solanafloor archetypal flagged the breach connected X with fashionable analytics steadfast Lookonchain, subsequently revealing:

A hacker launched a token called SCATMAN and promoted it aft hacking the @SpaceXAI and @Starlink accounts. The hacker past minted 10T SCATMAN and dumped each for 59 ETH ($108K).

A 2nd wallet controlled by the aforesaid attacker sold different 59.28 cardinal SCATMAN for 14.7 ETH, worthy astir $27,000, bringing full proceeds to astir 73.7 ETH. The token’s marketplace capitalization reached $32 cardinal astatine its highest earlier sliding arsenic the dump hit, portion 24-hour trading volume climbed to $5.7 million.

Onchain information showing the hackers moving the funds into ETH and cashing out.

The strategy is simply a acquainted 1 wherever miscreants hijack a verified firm relationship with millions of followers, connect a token to the brand’s credibility, and merchantability into the buying frenzy. Musk-linked names person agelong been a favourite lure for crypto scammers, and the SpaceX and Starlink handles fertile among the astir recognizable brands connected X.

New Chain, Old Scams

SCATMAN was deployed connected Robinhood Chain, the trading platform’s layer-2 web that went unrecorded connected July 1. The chain’s permissionless plan has fto anyone deploy tokens astatine scale, and its aboriginal days person been marked by a flood of fraudulent assets alongside morganatic projects.

As Bitcoin.com News reported, cross-chain interoperability level Relay Protocol has warned of honeypot tokens connected the web (coins hardcoded truthful buyers cannot sell, oregon that transportation funds consecutive to an attacker). The level stated:

There’s been an summation successful scam tokens designed to region themselves aft purchase. We are blocking specified tokens arsenic they look and verifying harmless ones.

The SCATMAN incidental layers a societal media compromise connected apical of that environment. A token bearing a gag name, minted successful the trillions and promoted done hijacked flagship accounts, was capable to pull $32 cardinal successful insubstantial worth wrong hours of the chain’s 2nd week successful operation. For buyers who chased the posts, the losses were contiguous erstwhile liquidity drained.

Neither SpaceX nor X had issued a elaborate connection connected however the accounts were breached astatine the clip of writing. Both accounts were restored and the promotional posts removed by Sunday evening.

In immoderate case, the unanswered question is inactive attribution since Lookonchain’s wallet way gives investigators a starting point, and erstwhile high-profile X relationship compromises person drawn scrutiny from U.S. authorities. Whether this 1 produces an enforcement effect oregon simply different introduction successful the agelong ledger of celebrity-brand token scams should go clearer successful the days ahead.