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Comedian and YouTuber Tanmay Bhat’s X account was hacked on Monday night. The hackers posted an announcement about a fake meme coin, claiming it was linked to Tanmay’s love for memes and Solana, a blockchain platform.
The post, shared around 8.20 pm, read, “I love memes and Solana, so I figured it was time to drop my own coin. Dev supply will be locked momentarily, and I’ll be using YouTube revenue from streams and videos to support the coin and integrate it into my content. Stay tuned for more information.”
The hackers also attached a link to the post.
The news ignited a range of reactions from social media users. One user remarked, “Who knows?? What if it’s a paid one to say- “account was hacked” next day of promotion.” Another user reacted that it could not be a hack as Bhat has a knowledge on crypto.
“Nowadays hacked synonym is memecoin launch,” a third user reacted.
Soon after, Tanmay alerted his followers on Instagram, urging them not to click any links shared on his X account. “My Twitter has been hacked. Please don’t click on any links. I’m working to fix it,” he wrote on his Instagram story.
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In 2020, billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates were among several high-profile US figures targeted by hackers on Twitter (now X) in what appeared to be a bitcoin scam. The official accounts of former US presidents Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, and American rapper Kanye West also shared messages asking for cryptocurrency donations.
One tweet from Bill Gates’s account read, “Everyone is asking me to give back. You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000.”
Twitter’s then CEO Jack Dorsey had addressed the event and wrote, “Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened.” The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre stated that its officers had “reached out” to the tech company,” the BBC reported.
