McDonald’s Instagram Account Was Hacked To Shill Scam Meme Coin

Key Points:

• A suspected hack on McDonald’s Instagram account led to a misleading announcement about a meme token called “GRIMACE” on the Solana blockchain.
• The false announcement caused GRIMACE’s market value to surge to $25 million briefly before crashing, with scammers reportedly profiting $473,000 in SOL coins.

A promotional Instagram post on McDonald’s claimed that a token called “GRIMACE” would be launched on the Solana network, which thus led to the fear that their account may have been hacked.

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McDonald’s Instagram Account Hack Triggers Meme Token Madness

The market value of the token surged to $25 million in less than 30 minutes from the post, which drew the eyes of investors before crashing.

The same information was posted even by McDonald’s marketing director, Guillaume Huin, on X, which further proved that the token had just been minted. Both posts are now deleted, leaving investors in a dilemma as to whether the announcement is legit or not.

Even though there was no kind of proof or announcement made by the fast-food giant that McDonald’s Instagram account had been hacked, suspicious of the nature of the posts and further their removal people raise concerns that the company’s social media accounts might have been compromised.

Scam Risks Surge as Cryptocurrency Market Faces New Threats

On another note, the McDonald’s Instagram account incident occurred when meme coin scams are on the increase since 2024, in which scammers have been exploiting security vulnerabilities in poorly coded smart contracts that hoodwink investors.

Things took another dramatic turn when an unknown wallet began buying some 3,372 SOLs—equivalent to about $473,000—minutes prior to the McDonald’s posting. Many have termed this to be driven by insiders.