Musk's Endorsement Triggers $80 Million Scam

Elon Musk was targeted by scammers who compromised the X account of Shivon Zilis, a Neuralink executive and mother of his four children. The hackers made a post on her account that did not immediately suggest it was a cryptocurrency project.

Musk replied to the post with an emoji, which some interpreted as him endorsing the project. As a result, the meme-based token SLINK surged in value, reaching $80 million in just a few hours before crashing by over 95%.

Investigations revealed that the project was a pump-and-dump scheme, and the post on Zilis's account had been deleted. The top 30 insider wallets connected to the hack made profits of over $4.70 million, while most traders lost money.