Animoca Brands Co-Founder Yat Siu’s X Account Hacked to Promote Fake Token

Animoca Brands, a leading blockchain gaming firm, confirmed that its co-founder and chair, Yat Siu, had his X (formerly Twitter) account hacked to promote a fake token.

Animoca revealed that Siu’s account was compromised, with the hacker posting the launch of a fraudulent token on Solana’s Pump.fun platform.

The now-deleted post promoted a fake token called Animoca Brands (MOCA), mimicking the firm’s name and its affiliated Mocaverse NFT collection.

Incident is Part of a Larger Phishing Campaign

The incident, reported on December 26, is part of a recent surge in attacks targeting crypto-focused X accounts, according to blockchain investigator ZachXBT.

The on-chain seluth revealed that the phishing attack was likely carried out by a group behind similar scams, which have stolen approximately $500,000 in the past month.

The fake MOCA token briefly peaked at a market cap of $36,700 but plummeted to $7,700 shortly after, with its current value hovering around $6,200 as trading volume dried up.

ZachXBT linked the fake MOCA token to the same wallet address responsible for deploying fraudulent tokens from other hacked X accounts.

Update: Yat Siu (co-founder of Animoca) likely fell for the same phishing email a few hours ago as the scam token was deployed by the same address as the Kick & Vanar CEO ATOs

Deployer address
BL1hs3jw58d1S9xw7cKRUx9wXY94se9Ydt7bCgN1W3pL pic.twitter.com/bTA1QUjJ7b

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) December 26, 2024

The investigator also noted that at least 15 X accounts have been targeted by this group using sophisticated phishing tactics.

The attackers impersonate X’s support team, sending fake copyright infringement notices to their victims.

These notices direct users to phishing websites where they unknowingly reset their X account credentials, including two-factor authentication details, handing control to the hackers.

The wave of hacks began on November 26 with the account of Bitcoin infrastructure provider RuneMine and continued with crypto trading video streaming site Kick on December 24.

Animoca’s Siu appears to be the latest victim in this ongoing campaign, underscoring the vulnerabilities in social engineering attacks.

X Accounts of Major Crypto Projects Fall Victim to Hacks

The growing prominence of crypto projects on X has attracted cybercriminals who exploit the platform to spread phishing links and target creators with scams.

On December 8, the Cardano Foundation’s X account was hacked. The attacker promoted a fake “ADAsol” token and falsely claimed the Foundation would stop supporting ADA.

The scam generated $500,000 in trading volume before the token’s value plummeted by 99%.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson confirmed the breach but warned of the increasing threat to social media accounts.

This incident is one of many recent hacks targeting X accounts.

In October, Symbiotic’s X account was compromised, and the attacker posted phishing links disguised as airdrop checklists, leading to stolen tokens. EigenLayer, another restaking protocol, faced a similar hack with a fake airdrop campaign.

On Oct. 29, Truth Terminal AI founder Andy Ayrey’s account was hijacked to promote fraudulent meme coins, resulting in $1.5 million in profits for the hacker.

In November, rapper Wiz Khalifa’s X account was used to shill a fake meme coin called WIZ. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT linked this hacker to Ayrey’s account compromise.