Popular mixed martial arts organization the UFC had its Instagram hacked on Wednesday. The Las Vegas-based MMA promotion’s Instagram account was displaying a bizarre cryptocurrency post-Wednesday evening, suggesting the UFC was launching a new coin. A fraudulent post promoted an unauthorized Solana meme coin that rapidly soared to an $11 million market cap. A promotion official quickly confirmed to MMA Junkie that the post is not legitimate and the account had been hacked.
The fraud post was targeted to the UFC and Cryptocurrency fans. The post's caption was charging up UFC fans with a statement depicting that the wait of UFC fans is over now, it's the time for the UFC meme coin. “UFC fans have been waiting, and the moment is here,” the post read. “Get ready to own the legacy, Precision, Strength, All in one coin. #UFC #UnleashTheFight”.
The post was up for at least an hour and in that time, the UFC hadn’t publicly acknowledged the post. A post was also made to the account’s Instagram Stories, which linked out to a website where the fraudulent crypto coin could be purchased. That portion has since been removed.
That’s before the attackers sold their 40% supply, of course, profiting $1.4 million in the process—that’s more than Khamzat Chimaev earned at UFC 308. This pump-and-dump has left many UFC fans with substantial losses as the token’s price crashed by 97%. This post caused UFC Coin (UFC) to spike 44,367% in just 41 minutes to a market cap of $11.31 million. It's a big crypto scam. Numerous users in the token’s Telegram chat said that they believed the Instagram post was legit, particularly since Donald Trump just launched his own (real) coin.
Meme coins have gained massive popularity in the crypto world due to their viral nature. Unexpected meme coins are the hottest this month. Donald Trump announced his TRUMP coin on social media rather than through an official government channel, leading many to question if the account had been hacked.
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