Animoca Brands Co-Founder Yat Siu's Social Media Account Hacked to Promote Fake Solana (SOL) Token

The co-founder of Animoca Brands, a leading firm in the blockchain gaming space, had their Twitter social media account hacked and used to promote a fake Solana (SOL) token.

Animoca Brands co-founder’s X account was hacked and used to promote a fake Solana (SOL) token, but the company says the ecosystem is safe.

An X account belonging to Yat Siu, the co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, was hacked on Friday and used to promote a fake token launch on Solana (SOL). However, Animoca Brands and Mocaverse (MOCA) later confirmed that the NFT collection is not launching a token on Solana.

Animoca Brands is a leading force in the blockchain gaming space, having raised over $750 million in funding last year. The company is behind metaverse game The Sandbox (SAND) and a portfolio of over 340 Web3 investments.

On Friday, Animoca Brands took to X to inform its followers that Siu’s account was hacked and used to promote a fake token launch on Solana. The post added that there is no official token or NFT (non-fungible token) launch from Animoca Brands.

“Unfortunately Yat Siu’s social media account has been compromised. There is no official token or NFT (non-fungible token) launch from Animoca Brands. The token launch on Solana as claimed in a post was made by the hacker. Please DO NOT engage with the account and stay vigilant. We will provide an update when the account is restored.”

A separate post on X from Mocaverse stated that the NFT collection is not launching a token on Solana and that the ecosystem is safe. The post added that better security measures are now in place.

“We have confirmation that X has secured control of Yat Siu’s account and is now in the process of verifying true account ownership. The evidence seems to suggest that this was a case of stolen identity as the account had standard security implementations.

There is no compromise on Animoca Brands, Moca Network or MOCA Foundation official handles, and there are strict security measures in place. As safety measures, all key members and official accounts have updated all authentications. No additional vulnerabilities or unauthorized activities were identified.”

SAND and MOCA are trading for $0.561 and $0.327 at the time of writing, respectively.

According to blockchain investigator ZackXBT, Siu likely fell for the same phishing email scam that other blockchain executives were hit with earlier this week.

“Update: Yat Siu (co-founder of Animoca) likely fell for the same phishing email a few hours ago as the scam token was deployed by the same address as the Kick and Vanar CEO ATOs.”