Musk Baited into $80 Million Memecoin Scam Through Hacked Neuralink Executive's Account
Elon Musk was caught in a massive $80 million memecoin scam after he unknowingly promoted a cryptocurrency token linked to his company, Neuralink.
The incident occurred when Shivon Zilis' X account, which is linked to Elon Musk's company, was compromised by a hacker. The post on the account made it seem like Elon Musk was backing a new project called Shivolink (SLINK), causing the token's price to surge past $80 million in just a few hours.
However, the sudden rally did not last as the aftermath revealed that it was a pump-and-dump scheme. The post on Shivon's account was deleted, leading to the coin crashing below $1 million in market cap.
The incident has left many traders in the crypto community warning of the dangers of social engineering and the importance of verifying information before investing. It is estimated that 30 insider wallets made over $4.70 million in profits from the scam, while most traders lost money.