Yat Siu's X account hacked to promote a fraudulent token, as phishing attacks target crypto figures

The X account of Yat Siu, co-founder of metaverse-focused venture capital firm Animoca Brands, was hacked and used to promote a fraudulent token, according to a statement from the company.

Prominent crypto figures have become prime targets for phishing scams, with a recent incident involving Yat Siu, co-founder of metaverse venture capital firm Animoca Brands, highlighting the growing sophistication of these attacks.

Siu's X account was compromised and used to promote a fraudulent token, sparking a swift response from Animoca Brands, which highlighted a broader wave of phishing attacks targeting high-profile crypto figures.

According to crypto investigator ZachXBT, the scam likely began with a phishing email posing as an official X communication regarding copyright infringement. This tactic aligns with a series of similar attacks over the past month, which reportedly netted scammers around $500,000.

Animoca Brands confirmed the compromise on its official X account at 01:36 UTC on Thursday, emphasizing that neither Animoca Brands nor its related projects, including Moca Network and the MOCA Foundation, were introducing any new tokens or NFTs.

Mocaverse also assured users that its official accounts and systems were uncompromised and reinforced their strict security measures.

Control of Siu's X account has since been secured, with X verifying ownership. No other related accounts were affected in the incident. However, on-chain data shows that the wallet linked to the perpetrators holds $67,000 in USDC stablecoin, although it remains unclear whether this amount is directly tied to phishing proceeds.

Further analysis by ZachXBT revealed the scammer's involvement in memecoin creation via the platform Pump.fun and the launch of several NFT collections in recent weeks.

This incident follows 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.

For instance, McDonald's Instagram account was compromised in August 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 presented the token as “a McDonald's experiment on Solana.”