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Pump.fun’s Account Hacked to Push Phony ‘PUMP’ Tokens Amid Surge in Industry Breaches
- As the crypto industry recoils from its largest hack in history, more issues are popping up following the compromise of Pump.fun’s Twitter account.
- Pump.fun, one of Solana’s largest dApps, is primarily used to create and trade memecoins.
- Once hacked, the Pump.fun Twitter account was used to promote a fraudulent ‘PUMP’ token, which was supposed to serve as a governance token for the dApp.
- Pump.fun has confirmed they’ve regained access to their social media accounts.
Solana’s status as the home of memecoins is taking a hit.
The blockchain was used to launch arguable pump-and-dump tokens like TRUMP and MELANIA, as well as not-so-arguable pump-and-dump project LIBRA.
The dent in Solana’s image as a reputable ecosystem – despite offering a lot more than memecoin minting – has smashed the SOL token’s price over the past month.
And now, the reputation of speculative memecoins, and Solana, isn’t getting any better following the hack of Pump.fun’s Twitter / X account.
Related: Crypto Community Reacts to the Industry’s Biggest Ever Exchange Hack
Pump.fun Socials Used to Promote Supposed ‘Governance’ Token
Pump.fun is one of Solana’s biggest ecosystem platforms, ranking third in trading volume behind DEXs Jupiter and Raydium.
The primary purpose of Pump.fun is for minting, promoting and selling memecoins, with the dApp leveraging Solana’s fast and low-fee blockchain.
However, as is the nature of memecoins, Pump.fun has been used as a vessel to commit pump and dump schemes…which its name kind of suggests.
But things were taken to a new level overnight when the official Pump.fun Twitter / X account was compromised. Upon gaining access, the attacker quickly shot a series of posts promoting a supposed ‘official governance token’ for the Pump.fun platform.
Given Pump.fun’s prominence among the Solana ecosystem, such a token launch would receive significant attention.
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The catch?
The token was fake.
Pump.fun Not to Blame for Account Hack, ZachXBT Claims
The compromise was quickly recognised by renowned internet sleuth ZachXBT, who cautioned investors to avoid the ‘PUMP’ token at all costs.
Pump.fun were quickly on the case themselves, posting in their telegram channel confirming their Twitter / X account had been compromised.
After a few hours, the official admins of the Pump.fun account reclaimed access, and things have gone back to normal. According to both ZachXBT and an early investigation from the memecoin trading platform, very little could’ve been done to avoid the hack.
In fact, ZachXBT goes as far to claim that the leak may come from X / Twitter’s side.
However, given the difficult circumstances enshrouding the crypto market this week, the account hack was the last thing the memecoin industry needed.
Author
Ben Knight
Ben Knight is a writer and editor from Melbourne with a passion for all things music and finance. He enjoys turning complex topics – especially the technical details of cryptocurrency – into digestible bites that anybody can understand. He acquired his Master’s in Writing, Editing and Publishing from RMIT in 2019 and has run his own creative writing business ever since.
