McDonald’s Instagram profile was hacked, leading to the promotion of a scam memecoin called GRIMACE on the Solana blockchain which had a rug pull later. The memecoin quickly amassed a $25 million market cap within two hours before it was rug-pulled, losing over 95% of its value. The scammers, identifying themselves as “India_X_Kr3w,” claimed to have stolen around $700,000 from investors who believed the token was officially linked to McDonald’s.
Key Points:
- The GRIMACE token hit a $25 million market cap before crashing.
- Scammers stole approximately $700,000 from investors.
- McDonald’s regained control of its Instagram account after two hours, deleting all scam-related posts.
After deploying the GRIMACE token via Pump.fun, the scammers quickly reached the bonding curve limit, allowing the token to be traded on Raydium. In just two hours, DEX Screener data showed the token generated nearly $20 million in trading volume. Despite the rug pull, some investors continued betting on the token, as liquidity in the Raydium pool increased.
The incident also involved the hacking of Guillaume Huin, McDonald’s senior marketing director, whose social media accounts were used to promote the scam. His posts on X and Instagram misleadingly referred to the token as “a McDonald’s experiment on Solana.” McDonald’s eventually regained control of its Instagram account, removing all traces of the fraudulent promotion.
