- 50 Cent’s hacked Twitter promoted “GUNIT” token, leading to a $300M alleged scam.
- The token’s value crashed from hype-induced highs to $0.00016.
- Multiple traders sold over $100K worth of “GUNIT” post-promotion, highlighting market manipulation risks.
Renowned rapper Curtis James Jackson III, better known as ‘50 Cent,’ revealed a shocking incident in which his social media accounts and website were compromised, allegedly by hackers executing a cryptocurrency scheme. The attackers reportedly used Jackson’s large Twitter following of 12.9 million users to promote a fake cryptocurrency token called ‘GUNIT.’
In what is known as a ‘Rug pull’ scheme in the cryptocurrency community, developers create a new token, inflate its value to entice investors, and then quickly sell their token holdings, causing its value to drop. In this case, the GUNIT token’s price skyrocketed before plunging to just $0.00016.
Jackson informed his 32.8 million Instagram followers of the breach and stressed that he had no involvement with the cryptocurrency. He regretted that the hackers had stolen significant amounts of money from unsuspecting victims, resulting in an alleged $300 million payout in just half an hour.
Several wallet addresses witnessed significant sell-offs shortly after the token was promoted on Jackson’s compromised Twitter account. Notably, four accounts liquidated holdings worth over $100,000 each, contributing to the token’s volatile trading behavior.
Despite Jackson’s claim of $300 million in losses, analysts argued that this figure exaggerated the actual gains made by anonymous traders involved in the scheme. According to reports, the total trading volume of the $GUNIT token was $19.4 million, demonstrating the risk and unpredictability associated with such cryptocurrency projects.
The incident occurs at a time when celebrities are getting involved with cryptocurrency-related projects at a worrying pace, which may lead to both speculation and concerns regarding potential manipulation of the market.
