Solana-Based Memecoin Rug Pulled By McDonald’s Hacker, Market Cap Plummets 98%

The crypto ecosystem has seen a surge in memecoins and their popularity over the past year. Still, the craze has ushered in a wave of scams and rug pulls targeting unsuspecting investors. The latest victim of this trend is the Solana-based GRIMACE coin, which was the subject of a rug pull.

The incident began when hackers accessed the official McDonald’s Instagram account and used the platform to promote the GRIMACE token. The hackers spread misinformation, falsely claiming that McDonald’s had issued the GRIMACE memecoin on the Solana blockchain.

This had the desired effect, as investors rapidly piled into the GRIMACE token, driving its market capitalization from a modest $500,000 to a substantial $25 million in 30 minutes. 

At its peak, the token’s price skyrocketed by nearly 400%, reaching $0.02500 from an initial value of just $0.0005110.

However, the euphoria was short-lived. After the token’s rise, the anonymous developers behind GRIMACE executed a classic rug pull, abruptly abandoning the project and absconding with over $700,000 in investor funds. 

The hackers even posted a message on the McDonald’s Instagram bio, brazenly stating, “Thank you for the $700,000 in Solana.” 

On the other hand, the Solana price has been relatively stable since Monday, trading within a newly formed range between $138 and $142 after recovering from the drop at the beginning of the month toward the $109 level, which was the lowest point since March this year.

Over the past 24 hours, SOL has recorded almost no changes compared to Tuesday’s price, experiencing a slight 0.9% drop despite Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) surging nearly 3% and 2%, respectively. 

This lack of price movement suggests little demand for the fifth-largest cryptocurrency in the market over the past week, further evidenced by a 14% drop in trading volume to $2.2 million in the last 48 hours, according to CoinGecko data.

The consolidation in Solana’s price is also concerning for bullish investors, as the token has failed to overcome its key technical indicators. Currently trading at $142, SOL has not breached its 50-day and 200-day exponential moving averages (EMAs), which are positioned at $143 and $151, respectively. 

Overcoming these levels would be crucial for sustained price recovery and provide important support floors in the event of potential corrections. However, it is worth noting that after the broader cryptocurrency market crash on August 5, SOL found significant support at the $129 level, representing a critical near-term defense for Solana’s price action.

Featured image from DALL-E, chart is from TradingView.com