McDonald’s Instagram Account Hacked to Promote Solana-Based Memecoin GRIMACE

The Instagram post promoting GRIMACE has since been deleted, but it initially presented the token as “a McDonald’s experiment on Solana.”

McDonald's Instagram account was reportedly compromised on Monday to promote a Solana-based memecoin called GRIMACE. The token quickly surged to a market capitalization of around $20 million before plummeting to below $1 million, according to pump.fun data.

The Instagram post promoting GRIMACE has since been deleted, but it initially presented the token as “a McDonald's experiment on Solana.” Additionally, the fast food chain's Instagram profile appeared to have been altered, with a message claiming “thank you for the $700,000 in Solana” and referencing a rug pull.

This incident is the latest in a string of hacks targeting social media accounts of prominent firms and celebrities, typically those with tens of millions of followers. These hacks often promote Solana-based meme coins, exploiting the large audience reach of these high-profile accounts.

Earlier this year, the X (formerly Twitter) account of Google's cybersecurity firm Mandiant was hijacked to promote a cryptocurrency scam. The attackers took over the account, posing as the legitimate crypto wallet Phantom, and used the compromised account to tweet out a series of promotions directing users to a scam website.

The incident lasted several hours, during which Mandiant's X account tweeted a fraudulent message about a supposed $PHNTM token distribution, luring users to a malicious site.

American rapper and singer Doja Cat also had her X account hacked in July, where it was used to promote a Solana-based meme coin. The hacker removed Doja Cat's profile picture and description, posting over two dozen tweets to her 5.6 million followers.

Doja Cat quickly addressed the situation on Instagram, informing her 24 million followers that she was not behind the cryptocurrency tweets. The incident led to a series of tweets about other celebrities, including Iggy Azalea, who responded to the hack with a tweet defending her friendship with Doja Cat and warning hackers.

This takeover is part of a broader pattern of high-profile X account hacks, following similar incidents involving figures like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Security concerns have escalated since Musk's acquisition of the platform, with recent reports indicating a rise in cybercriminal activity targeting verified X accounts.