Heavy Metal Band Metallica Joins List of Celeb Meme Coin Scam Victims: Which Celeb(s) Will Be Next?

Many industry observers agree that the cryptocurrency market has been on a bullish trajectory since the beginning of the year.

Bitcoin (BTC) achieved a new peak, surpassing $73,500 in mid-March, while Ethereum (ETH) momentarily exceeded the $4,000 threshold.

At the time of writing, BTC is trading at a little over $61,600, a 1.36% increase in the last 24 hours and a 102.84% increase in the last one year, while ETH is trading at almost $3,400, a 0.99% in the last 24 hours and 79.63% increase in the last one year.

Meme coins, however, have been the standout performers of this bullish phase.

Numerous meme coins, such as dogwifhat (WIF), Bonk Inu (BONK), Pepe (PEPE), and Floki Inu (FLOKI), have garnered significant attention in recent months due to their substantial price surges.

Despite the aforementioned coins showing signs of deceleration, new entrants have made a splash in the market.

Notable examples include celebrity-endorsed tokens like Iggy Azalea's MOTHER and Andrew Tate's DADDY.

However, such success stories are rare.

It has become a concerning trend for celebrities' accounts to be compromised, with hackers exploiting the situation to promote a token to the unsuspecting fan base.

Metallica Joins Growing List of Victims

The official X account of the heavy metal band Metallica was compromised just earlier today, with the attackers exploiting the breach to promote a Solana token named METAL, perpetuating a recent trend where celebrities are targeted to spread pump-and-dump schemes masquerading as legitimate opportunities.

Metallica's team seems to have regained control of the account and has since removed all posts referencing the token.

The first mention of the token by Metallica's X account occurred in a 26 June post, falsely claiming a partnership with Ticketmaster.

In reality, the token was launched on the Solana-based token deployer pump.fun.

The posts from Metallica's account misleadingly suggested that fintech firm MoonPay was associated with the token, a claim that MoonPay president Keith Grossman refuted in an X post.

In an apparent effort to attract buyers, a series of posts promised that users could redeem exclusive items with their METAL tokens, such as "free concert tickets," custom gaming consoles, and merchandise, and even hinted at staking rewards.

The scammers responded to Grossman, falsely stating that they had been in contact with his team via email.

MoonPay then issued a direct warning about the scam on Twitter, referencing a well-known Metallica song to caution that anyone offering the METAL token is "not the master of puppets, they're the master of scams."

Despite the tweets—which included a Twitter Spaces audio call and replies to other users—being deleted within 90 minutes, the promoted METAL token experienced over $10 million in trading volume before suffering a significant crash.

According to Dexscreener data, the total value of the METAL token reached a brief peak of $3.37 million approximately 20 minutes after its launch.

Subsequently, the value of the METAL token plummeted, dropping to a total market capitalisation of $90,000 in less than three hours.

Its price has also fallen by nearly 100% from its high, which occurred shortly after Metallica's account shared the token, and it has since collapsed to about $0.00003.

The token's total market cap currently stands at just $30,000.

The method by which Metallica's account was breached remains unclear, and the band and its management team have not yet commented on the incident.

With regard to this incident, Metallica's X account only reposted Grossman's and Limewire's tweets.

X Users Amused, Made Metallica Jokes

Unsurprisingly, X users took the opportunity to make Metallica jokes.

LimeWire, the former file-sharing service notorious for vexing Metallica and other musicians before its 2010 shutdown for facilitating music piracy, joined in.

"Hey Lars, is this you?" LimeWire posted, referencing the outspoken Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, who famously opposed music-sharing services.

Today, the revived LimeWire brand operates as a generative AI platform for musicians and artists, complete with its own $LMWR token, following its initial relaunch as a music NFT marketplace.

June the Month of Mayhem for Celebs

The incident occurred shortly after a similar scam targeted the followers of rapper 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) and professional wrestler Hulk Hogan earlier this month.

In a flurry of tweets, 50 Cent's account began promoting a new Solana token called GUNIT, launched via Pump.fun.

The posts were intricate, referencing the rapper's cognac brand and recent celebrity-related crypto narratives, including Martin Shkreli's creation of a purportedly official Donald Trump Solana token and Andrew Tate's promotion of the DADDY coin.

Despite some crypto users' scepticism, the authenticity of the posts was not immediately clear, and funds quickly flowed into GUNIT.

The token's trading volume surged to $18.6 million within 40 minutes, with an 8,000% price increase, followed by a rapid plunge as liquidity vanished.

The scheme unravelled when 50 Cent announced on Instagram that his X account and website had been hacked.

GUNIT's value continued to fall, with its market capitalisation dropping to $78,000 at the time of writing, from a peak of $150,000.

The rapper claimed that the hackers made off with $300 million, although data sources indicate the token's market cap only reached a fraction of that amount during its brief spike.

Hogan also experienced a similar exploit with the HULK token on Solana.

After the token was "rugged," Hogan advised fans to ignore any crypto posts from his X account.

His X feed has since been cleared of all content, and it's unclear whether his account was hacked or if someone associated with Hogan used it maliciously.

The HULK token quickly reached a market cap of nearly $19 million before its price plummeted, likely due to a "rug pull" or a pump-and-dump scheme.

The token now has a market cap of just $99,000, trading at $0.00009986.

The Dim Light at the End of the Tunnel

The scam targeting Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees is merely the latest in a series of celebrity-endorsed pump-and-dump schemes involving Solana meme coins.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that several celebrities have recently launched their own official tokens.

In recent weeks, celebrity meme coins created via Pump.fun have seen their values soar, often based solely on a famous individual's endorsement.

For instance, the DADDY token, promoted by Andrew Tate, surged from nothing to a $340 million market capitalisation last week.

Similarly, rapper Iggy Azalea's MOTHER token reached $200 million around the same time.

MOTHER has shown signs of recovery over the past two days as investors took advantage of lower prices, while DADDY's value appears to be on a gradual decline, although there are still some optimistic sentiments.

As June draws to a close, the question remains whether there will be more unsuspecting victims or if July will bring further account compromises.