In a concerning cybersecurity breach, Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, had his X account compromised. The unauthorized access was used to promote a fraudulent cryptocurrency named ANIMOCA, leading to a significant but temporary price surge.
Animoca Brands promptly [confirmed](Hackers Target Animoca Chairman's Social Media, Promote Scam Token) the incident through its official X account, urging investors to cease any interactions with Yat Siu's compromised account. The fake ANIMOCA token reportedly soared by 500% in value within a brief span of five minutes before the hacker retracted their post.
This caused a rapid fluctuation in the token’s value, primarily recorded on the pump.fun platform.
Yat Siu, utilizing an alternate account, addressed the breach. He revealed that the hacker bypassed two-factor authentication (2FA) security measures and assured stakeholders that he had informed X’s support team. Furthermore, he committed to sharing his insights regarding the platform’s security vulnerabilities following this incident.
Animoca Brands, a prominent entity in the Web3 investment space with over 540 investments including Yuga Labs, Axie Infinity, and OpenSea, formally denied any association with the fraudulent token. They emphasized that there was no official cryptocurrency or NFT launch associated with their company, advising the public to remain cautious.
This event follows a notable trend of hacking incidents in the cryptocurrency domain. In December, scammers extracted $100,000 through a counterfeit CLAUDE token after compromising Anthropic’s X account. Additionally, Drake's account was hacked to promote a sham meme coin known as Anita.
Research by Cyvers highlights access control vulnerabilities as a critical issue, responsible for over $1.9 billion in damages in the crypto industry as of 2024. Such breaches underline the pressing need for enhanced security measures across digital platforms.