X Account of Animoca Brands Chair Hacked

Animoca Brands has confirmed that its co-founder and chair, Yat Siu, was hacked on X (formerly known as Twitter), with the attackers using his account to promote a fraudulent token.

This incident is part of a growing trend of attacks on crypto-related X accounts.

The hackers falsely claimed that Animoca Brands was launching a new token and contract, underlining the importance of vigilance among users.

The company clarified that it had not released any crypto tokens or NFTs and that any claims of a Solana-based token launch were also fabricated.

A now-deleted post from Siu's account had shared a link to a token launched on the Solana meme coin platform Pump.fun, called Animoca Brands (MOCA), which closely mirrored the company's name and its Mocaverse NFT collection.

Likely Victim of Phishing Scam

An initial investigation by Kenta revealed that the hacker gained control of Yat Siu's official X account, using it to falsely announce the launch of a new Animoca Brands token.

The token was reportedly created on the Pump.fun platform.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT suggested that Siu likely fell victim to a phishing email, part of a broader scheme that has seen similar attacks on crypto-focused X accounts, netting around $500,000 in the past month.

ZachXBT further confirmed that the fraudulent MOCA token was deployed from the same address used for other fake tokens linked to recent hacks.

Fake MOCA Token Peaked Then Tanked

The fraudulent MOCA token briefly surged to a value exceeding $36,700 after being promoted through Siu's hacked account, only to plummet almost immediately.

According to Birdeye, its market cap quickly dropped to around $7,700, and it now stands at approximately $5,896, based on data from Pump.fun.

Recent String of Hacks

ZachXBT revealed that the attacker gained control of at least 15 X accounts through social engineering tactics, impersonating the X team and sending fake copyright infringement notices.

These notices created a sense of urgency, tricking victims into visiting a phishing site where they inadvertently reset their X account passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA), which the attacker then exploited.

In response, Yat Siu confirmed the breach via a secondary account, explaining that the attacker bypassed 2FA and had already reported the issue to X's support team.

Siu also expressed intent to share insights into the security flaws that allowed the attack to occur.