50 Cent targeted by hackers pushing fake cryptocurrency

Famous rapper 50 Cent revealed that hackers took over his X account and personal website to promote a fake cryptocurrency.

50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson, warned his 32.8 million followers on Instagram on June 21 that both his X account and his personal website, thisis50.com, had been hacked.

According to the multi-platinum-selling artist, hackers used the platforms to promote a new meme coin called GUNIT, after 50 Cent, a hip-hop group formed in the late 1990s.

Source: 50 Cent on Instagram

50 Cent has no connection to the fake cryptocurrency. The “The Expendables 4” star explained that hackers took advantage of his extensive social media reach to attract investors.

A pump-and-dump scheme, the scam involved creating the GUNIT token and using the significant influence of 50 Cent (who has nearly 12.9 million followers on X) to inflate the price of the token. GUNIT reportedly rose in value as investors flocked in, but fell to $0.00016 after scammers dumped its holdings.

50 Cent shared several screenshots on Instagram showing the rapid rise and sudden decline in GUNIT’s market value. Hackers are believed to have made as much as $300,000,000 in just 30 minutes.

However, analysis of GUNIT trading activity on Dex Screener shows that the token’s total trading volume over the last 16 hours was just under $20 million.

Specifically, more than 670 million GUNIT tokens worth over $2.3 million were transferred to five accounts. The meme coin currently has 2,799 owners and a market cap of $330,000.

GUNIT’s bestsellers: Source: Dex Screener

This latest incident isn’t 50 Cent’s first encounter with crypto. In 2018, reports emerged that the rapper had made millions by accepting Bitcoin (BTC) as payment for his 2014 album “Animal Ambition.”

According to TMZ, 50 Cent collected approximately 700 BTC, worth approximately $662 each, earning him approximately $463,000.

In 2018, when TMZ broke the story, it estimated that the singer and actor’s BTC stash would be worth between $7 and $8.5 million.

However, Jackson, who is also the producer of many popular TV shows, denied these allegations in court and stated that he accepted cryptocurrency as payment, but that it did not provide him with significant income.