Popular rapper 50 Cent recently shared on his Instagram account that hackers had taken over his X account and personal website to promote a fake cryptocurrency scheme. The hackers used 50 Cent’s large social media following to endorse a new meme coin called GUNIT, named after the hip-hop group he founded back in the 1990s.
Despite the hackers’ efforts, 50 Cent clarified that he has no association with the fake cryptocurrency. The scam, known as a pump-and-dump scheme, involved creating the GUNIT token and leveraging 50 Cent’s massive influence online to inflate the token’s value. As investors rushed in, the price of GUNIT surged, only to crash to $0.00016 once the scammers sold off their shares.
Screenshots shared by 50 Cent on Instagram displayed the rapid increase and sharp decline of GUNIT’s market worth. It is estimated that the hackers managed to steal up to $300 million in just half an hour. However, an examination of GUNIT trading on Dex Screener revealed that the total trading volume of the token in the last 16 hours was about $20 million.
Interestingly, a few accounts sold more than 670 million GUNIT tokens valued at over $2.3 million. Currently, GUNIT has 2,799 holders and a market capitalization of $330,000. This incident is not the first time 50 Cent has been linked to cryptocurrencies. In 2018, reports emerged that he had made millions by accepting Bitcoin as payment for his album “Animal Ambition” in 2014.
According to TMZ, 50 Cent acquired around 700 BTC, which were worth approximately $662 each at the time, resulting in earnings of about $463,000. TMZ suggested that his Bitcoin holdings could have been valued between $7 million and $8.5 million in 2018. However, 50 Cent denied these claims in court, stating that while he did accept Bitcoin as payment, it did not lead to significant profits for him.
This recent incident serves as a cautionary tale about the risks associated with cryptocurrencies and the importance of being vigilant online. It also highlights the potential for misuse of social media platforms by hackers to carry out fraudulent activities. Users should always be wary of investment opportunities that seem too good to be true and conduct thorough research before participating in any financial transactions involving digital assets.
