Sydney Sweeney's X account hacked to promote SWEENEY token

American actress Sydney Sweeney is the latest victim of a crypto hack. Sweeney’s X account was hacked to promote a memecoin.

According to now-deleted posts on Sweeney’s profile, the attacker promoted the SWEENEY token, a Solana-based memecoin. The token was launched on July 2.

SWEENEY launched and dumped

The attacker soon started creating promotional posts in a bid to lure Sweeney’s 1.1 million X followers to join in on the hype.

One of the promotional posts said:

Meanwhile, another post mentioned a live session on X Spaces, something that the industry has seen celebrities do when launching their own themed tokens.

Source: Sydney Sweeney X.

However, the post turned out to be a bid by the attacker to appear legitimate. 

Within hours after launch, SWEENEY hit a trading volume of over $10 million. Subsequently, the price of the token dropped more than 90% in just over an hour.

Data from DEX Screener shows that the token now has a market capitalisation of $684,000.

Interestingly, a Telegram account was also promoted by the attacker on Sweeney’s X account. Following the token’s crash, the admin of the Telegram channel took credit for the attack.

At the time of publication, the messages have been deleted. The group had more than 750 members.

Further, the attacker also revealed his plans to target other celebrities but did not mention any specific details. 

This was the second time Sweeney’s account got hacked in 2024. Back in January, the actress's account was compromised to promote another meme token dubbed MILK.

Source: Smol News on X.

However, it has not been confirmed if the attack was executed by the same hacker. 

Hacker takes credit for other attacks

The attacker also took credit for other recent celebrity account hacks, including that of rapper 50 Cent and ex-pro wrestler Hulk Hogan.

On June 22, 50 Cent’s X account was hacked to promote the GUNIT memecoin, named after the hip-hop group the rapper founded. Soon after the launch, approximately five accounts offloaded $2.3 million worth of GUNIT tokens.

Similarly, Hulk Hogan’s X account was compromised in early June. The attacker promoted the HULKAMANIA (HULK) token.

The token hit a market capitalisation of $18.8 million, dumped soon after.  Five wallets reportedly controlled 15% of all tokens.

The recent attack follows several instances of pump-and-dump schemes involving celebrity-themed tokens.

Rapper “Rich the Kid,” Nigerian singer David Adedeji Adeleke Oon, and rapper Iggy Azalea are some of the notable names that promoted memecoins on their X accounts.

The launch and the subsequent price dumps of these tokens were said to have been orchestrated by memecoin collaborator Sahil Arora.