Animoca co-Founder’s X account hacked for Solana meme coin

As Solana meme coin scams increase, Animoca Brands released a public announcement that co-founder Yat Siu’s X account was compromised.

The official statement makes it clear that the recent allegations regarding the launch of the $ANIMOCA token, or non-fungible tokens on the Solana blockchain, attributed to Animoca Brands, are the result of malicious activities of the hacker. Crypto gaming publisher Kenta first conducted the investigation.

The Hong Kong-based gaming software company said there is no official token or NFT launch associated with Animoca Brands as of now and urged users not to interact with the compromised account. Animoca Brands promised further updates once the account is restored.

‼️🚨 Unfortunately @ysiu His social media account was hacked. Animoca Brands does not have an official token or NFT launch. The token launch on Solana was done by a hacker, as claimed in a post. Please DO NOT interact with the account and be careful.

We are a…

— Animoca Brands (@animocabrands) December 26, 2024

Yat Siu and David Kim founded Animoca Brands Corporation in 2014. The company initially focused on developing mobile games, but in 2018 it shifted its focus to blockchain games and NFTs, becoming a major player in the Web3 space.

Vulnerabilities in the Solana blockchain

This is not the first time the Solana blockchain has been used for fraudulent purposes. Solana’s infrastructure leaves users vulnerable to certain vulnerabilities. A recent lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice shed light on this issue; The Department of Justice has charged two California men, Gabriel Hay and Gavin Mayo, with conducting NFT rug pulls on Ethereum and Solana that cost buyers over $22 million. Such ploys included touting fake NFT projects like Vault of Gems and Faceless and running away with investors’ money. The case is the largest NFT fraud ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice. Moreover, Canadian singer Drake also had his account compromised to promote his Solana-based meme coin Anita.

Why is Solana vulnerable to fraud?

While Solana’s architecture is designed for efficiency, it introduces a number of risks that make it more susceptible to fraud compared to other networks. The token account structure Solana uses allows attackers to reassign ownership of assets using certain commands, leaving the funds virtually unrecoverable.

Additionally, Solana’s single-step transaction confirmation (as opposed to Ethereum’s multi-step contract functions) can cause immediate and irreversible losses if a malicious transaction is allowed. The platform’s capacity to group multiple sub-transactions into a single confirmation also increases the risk of unseen theft.

Fraudsters also leverage Solana’s Durable Nonce capability to delay execution of fraudulent operations, evade warnings, and confuse victims. This, along with users’ ignorance of Solana’s unique operational dangers, makes Solana a prime target for scams.