Litecoin’s X account hacked to promote fake Solana-based token, team regains control

On January 11, Litecoin’s official X social media account fell victim to a hacker allegedly promoting a fraudulent Litecoin token launched on the Solana network. 

The scam involved a post that read, “LTC is now in Solana,” 

The hacker wrote a now-deleted and grammatically incorrect post featuring a contract address and a pump.fun link to the scam token.

The Litecoin team later announced that they had resolved the matter. They noted that they were now in control of the account and said the attack was due to a compromised delegated account that had since been deleted.

Hackers are increasingly targeting social media accounts to promote fake tokens

Hacking social media accounts to promote fake projects or tokens is common among crypto-criminals. The Litecoin incident is the latest in a series of high-profile X account hacks targeting organizations and individuals to promote fake tokens and phishing schemes. These scams aim to steal funds and sensitive user data, underscoring the need for heightened cybersecurity measures.

In October, Andy Ayrey, Truth Terminal’s founder’s X account, was attacked. The hacker used the access to promote a token called “IB” and walked away with $600 million in net profit. During the same month, Restaking protocol, EigenLayer’s X account was hacked to promote a fake airdrop campaign. 

The hacker posted several malicious links from the account, advertising the “Season 2 Stakedrop,” which they falsely claimed was sourced from reallocated EIGEN tokens before the EigenLayer team regained control. 

At the beginning of November, rapper Wiz Khalifa’s account was also compromised. The hacker took the opportunity to promote a fake celebrity memecoin called ‘WIZ’ on the account. The threat actor linked the token with the musical artist. 

Hackers target Cardano Foundation and Animoca Brands 

On December 8 Cardano Foundation’s X account was also compromised, with attackers posting false information about an alleged SEC lawsuit and promoting a fraudulent token (ADAsol). The scam falsely claimed that the foundation would stop supporting its native cryptocurrency, ADA, due to a legal issue with the SEC.

The fake token garnered approximately $500,000 in trading volume before the scam was exposed, causing the price of “ADAsol” to plummet by over 99%. 

Yat Siu, co-founder of Web3 company Animoca Brands, also fell victim to an X account hack on December 26. 

Similar to the other cases, the scammer used the account to promote a fraudulent token — a fake memecoin on the Solana network called “Animoca Brands,” which had no connection to the reputable Web3 company.

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