On Wednesday (April 2nd), Slash’s Twitter/X account shared a number of posts promoting a cryptocurrency memecoin. While the Guns N’ Roses guitarist often shares some strange things to his social media pages, it appears he has been hacked.
“In 2 hours, we’re launching a memecoin on SOLANA. Stay tuned…” Slash’s account tweeted in a since-deleted post.
Half an hour later, his account posted: “Get ready to unleash your crypto power with GUNS – the memecoin for every Guns N’ Roses fan!”
Slash’s account also posted several links to the memecoin, and promised his followers that “We will invest $1M in $GUNS in the next hour.”
Luckily, it seems not many people fell for the scam. As of Wednesday (April 2nd), the coin only had an approximate value of $0.000003, with its market cap plummeting from $15,000 to around $4,400 (according to Loudwire).
While it seems Slash has regained control of his Twitter/X account – as all of these posts have since been deleted – he is not the first major musician to have his account compromised.
Last year, Metallica’s name and brand were used by the scammers to also sell cryptocurrency.
Addressing the 2022 security breach, Metallica released an official statement to their Facebook page, writing at the time:
“In the wake of last week’s exciting news of our new song, new album, and new tour, unfortunately the ugly side of social media made an appearance. Many of you have let us know about YouTube channels and live streams, as well as websites, claiming to offer Metallica Crypto giveaways in conjunction with last week’s announcement.
“Let’s be as clear as possible. These are scams. They’re being streamed on fake YouTube channels posing to be ours and all pointing to websites that we do not run. Please remember — all of our official social media channels are verified. Always look for official verification before believing something wild and crazy to be true. We thank all of you who have been vigilant in reporting these live streams to YouTube and to us… please don’t let up!”
