In what’s becoming an unfortunate trend for celebrities venturing into the volatile world of cryptocurrencies, the legendary American heavy metal band Metallica has recently fallen prey to a crypto scam. The ordeal unfolded when their X account was compromised on June 26th, leading to unauthorized promotion of a fraudulent token named METAL. This token was concocted on the Solana-based platform pump.fun, misleading fans with claims of a Ticketmaster partnership. The wide-reaching implications of such incidents are casting a shadow over the burgeoning memecoin sector within the cryptocurrency market.
Metallica’s team acted swiftly upon discovering the breach, regaining control of the compromised account and promptly deleting all posts regarding the spurious token. They directed their ire towards MoonPay, accusing them of being involved in the scheme. In a clear-cut denial, Keith Grossman, Moonpay’s president, refuted these allegations, emphasizing that MoonPay has no association with the $METAL token on Solana. Despite their defensive stance, Metallica demonstrated their skepticism by blocking MoonPay’s official account.
This event has echoes of an earlier scam that occurred on June 6th, involving a Solana memecoin known as HULKAMANIA. It saw its market capitalization plummet by $15 million following a classic pump-and-dump scheme, allegedly with the endorsement of WWE icon Hulk Hogan, a claim which he later renounced.
The Solana blockchain, despite the recent scams, continues to attract significant attention in the memecoin arena. After these incidents, Solana’s memecoin market capitalization still recorded a robust figure of $6.71 billion, with an uptick of 10.1% over the past 24 hours. This resilience demonstrated that not all celebrity-affiliated ventures suffer from such illicit activities. In fact, celebrity-linked Solana memecoins like JASON, associated with Jason Derulo, and MOTHER, connected to Iggy Azalea, have exhibited notable growth with JASON surging by 85% and MOTHER by 29%, as reported by CoinGecko.
The crypto ecosystem remains a double-edged sword, intertwining opportunities and risks. For celebrities and their fanbases, the allure of connecting through digital assets is tempered by the threat of financial schemes and cybersecurity breaches. The Metallica incident and similar scams underline the importance of vigilance and skepticism in digital financial endeavors, particularly within the context of memecoins and their volatile nature. As the memecoin market continues to evolve, industry stakeholders and participants must prioritize security and due diligence to protect against the unscrupulous actors waiting in the wings.
