McDonald’s Instagram Hack Sparks $25 Million Meme Coin Scam

• A hack on McDonald’s Instagram led to the promotion of a fraudulent meme coin, GRIMACE, causing its market value to briefly hit $25 million.
• The rapid surge and subsequent crash of the GRIMACE token resulted in significant financial losses for investors, exposing vulnerabilities in social media.
• An unknown wallet profited $473,000 from the scam, raising concerns about insider involvement and highlighting the rising threat of meme coin scams.

A suspected hack on McDonald’s official Instagram account led to a misleading post promoting a new meme token named “GRIMACE” on the Solana blockchain. This unexpected event caused the token’s market value to skyrocket to $25 million in less than 30 minutes, catching the attention of eager investors. However, the excitement was short-lived as the token’s value soon plummeted, leaving many in confusion.

False Claims of GRIMACE Token Launch

The fraudulent Instagram post announced that the GRIMACE token would be launched on the Solana network, raising concerns that McDonald’s social media accounts had been compromised. Despite the lack of any official confirmation from McDonald’s about the breach, the posts’ suspicious nature and subsequent removal heightened fears of a security lapse.

Moreover, McDonald’s marketing director, Guillaume Huin, inadvertently fueled the frenzy by sharing the same information on X, suggesting the token had just been minted. This added credibility to the fraudulent claims, further confusing investors. Both posts were later deleted, leaving the community questioning the legitimacy of the announcement.

Rapid Market Surge and Investor Losses

The sudden rise of GRIMACE’s market value to $25 million and the subsequent crash resulted in significant financial losses for many investors. The hype generated from the Instagram post drove the brief surge, with traders quickly buying into the token before its value collapsed. The episode underscores the vulnerability of social media platforms to such malicious activities and the risks posed to uninformed investors.

In a concerning twist, it was reported that an unknown wallet had purchased 3,372 SOL tokens, equivalent to about $473,000, just minutes before the fraudulent post. This has led to speculation that the purchase was orchestrated by insiders looking to profit from the scam.