Hackers Hijack McDonald’s Instagram, Scam $700K in Solana Through Grimace Meme Coin

Updated: 22 August 2024

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Hackers who took over McDonald’s official Instagram account with 5.1 million followers yesterday scammed $700,000 in Solana by promoting a scam meme coin called Grimace.

The hackers also gained access to the personal Twitter account of Senior Marketing Director Guillaume Huin to promote the meme coin.

Screenshots shared on X reveal that McDonald’s Instagram account posted a series of promotions for the scam token, inspired by the chain’s purple mascot, Grimace.

McDonald’s Hacker Dumped 75% Of GRIMACE After A 195,000% Rally

Data from Bubblemaps revealed that the hacker used the Solana meme coin deployer Pump.fun to scoop up 75% of the token’s circulating supply.

The tokens were then divided between 100 different wallets.

hacker owned 75% of the supply

used multiple addresses to buy on Pumpfun simultaneously, then spread into ~100 addresses

sold for $700k

thanks, @McDonalds 🍟 https://t.co/Gt9yb3V3qp pic.twitter.com/ojLoiJamdy

— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) August 21, 2024

Following the social media posts on both McDonald’s and Huin’s accounts, the price of the GRIMACE token skyrocketed 195,000% to take its market capitalization from a few thousand dollars to as high as $25 million within just 30 minutes.

This rally prompted the hackers to dump their holdings in the meme coin, causing its market cap to plummet to as low as $650,000 in 40 minutes.

Hacker Bragged About Gaining $700K

After the attack, the hacker went on to edit the bio section of McDonald’s Instagram page to brag about the exploit, saying the attack netted a profit of $700,000.

McDonald’s has since regained control of the page, and has removed all posts that promoted the meme coin.

In response to the incident, McDonald’s told the New York Post that it was aware of an “isolated incident” that had affected its social media accounts on Aug. 21.

The company said the issue has been resolved and apologized to its followers.