On August 21, the official Instagram account of McDonald’s was hacked by scammers who used it to promote a fake cryptocurrency, stealing over $700,000 in Solana (SOL) in the process. The scammers took advantage of the account’s large following—over 5.1 million people—to push a fake memecoin called "Grimace," named after the fast-food chain's well-known purple mascot.
The hackers made a series of posts claiming that this new Grimace coin was part of a “McDonald’s experiment on Solana,” a well-known blockchain platform. They designed the posts to look legitimate, fooling many followers into believing that McDonald's was genuinely involved in this cryptocurrency project.
Behind the scenes, the hackers used a tool known as a pump. fun to buy up 75% of the total supply of the Grimace tokens shortly after creating them. By controlling such a large portion of the supply, they were able to manipulate the market. After making the initial purchases, the hackers distributed the tokens across approximately 100 different wallets to make it look like there was more activity and interest in the coin than there actually was.
As soon as the promotional posts appeared on McDonald's Instagram, the value of the Grimace token soared. Within just 30 minutes, its market capitalization jumped from just a few thousand dollars to an astonishing $25 million. Many people who saw the posts likely bought into the coin, hoping to profit from what they thought was a new and exciting project backed by McDonald's.
However, this was all part of the scammers' plan. After the price of the token had risen significantly, the hackers quickly sold off their large holdings. This sudden sale caused the value of the Grimace token to crash, plummeting from $25 million to just $650,000 in about 40 minutes. Those who had bought the coin at its peak were left with worthless tokens, and the hackers walked away with approximately $700,000 in Solana.
To add insult to injury, the hackers even edited the bio of the McDonald’s Instagram page to brag about their successful scam. They wrote, “Sorry, you have just been rug pulled by India_X_Kr3w thank you for the $700,000 in Solana.” This message was a direct taunt to those who had fallen for the scam.
McDonald’s quickly took action to regain control of their account and remove the fraudulent posts and bio. The company later released a statement confirming that there had been an “isolated incident” that affected their social media accounts.
They apologized to their followers for any offensive content posted during the hack and assured everyone that the issue had been resolved, with their accounts returning to normal.
This incident highlights the risks associated with online scams and the importance of being cautious, even when seemingly trustworthy brands are involved.
